Israel retaliates; 2 Palestinians killed in Gaza airstrikes

GAZA (Reuters) — Israel launched fresh airstrikes in the Gaza Strip yesterday in response to rocket fire from the enclave, and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas group said two of its gunmen were killed in the bombings.

Militants fired at least three rockets toward Israeli towns from the Hamas-controlled strip on Friday, which was declared a “day of rage” by Palestinian factions protesting US President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

“The (Israeli Air Force) aircraft targeted four facilities belonging to the Hamas terror organization in the Gaza Strip: two weapons manufacturing sites, a weapons warehouse, a military compound,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

A Hamas source confirmed the two men killed in the strikes belonged to the group which urged Palestinians to keep up confronta- tion with Israeli forces.

Two more Palestinians were killed in clashes with Israeli troops on the Gaza border on Friday and scores more were wounded there and in the occupied West Bank during the protests.

Trump’s announcement on Wednesday has infuriated the Arab world and upset Western allies. The status of Jerusalem has been one of the biggest obstacles to a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians for generations.

Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its capital. Palestinians want the eastern part of the city as the capital of a future independent state of their own.

Most countries consider East Jerusalem, which Israel annexed after capturing it in the 1967 Middle East War, to be occupied territory. It includes the Old City, home to sites considered holy to Muslims, Jews and Christians alike.