Search for life among Gaza ruins
Israeli jets yesterday attacked several sites in Gaza after renewed Palestinian protests along the border a day earlier in which a teenager was killed.
The Israeli attack was the largest daytime series of air strikes in Gaza since the 2014 war, hitting 40 Hamas targets in the southern Gaza Strip.
Israel claimed its targets included a tunnel and other military compounds that it said were used in recent arson attacks using kites and balloons.
In retaliation, Hamas fired about 17 rockets at Israel, five of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome aerial defence system.
There were no report of casualties on either side, but the exchange threatens to spark more serious conflict after weeks of tension along the border.
Hamas said it fired the rockets to deter Israel from further action. Its spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, said it was an “immediate response” that was meant to “deliver the message”.
Israel has been warning Hamas that, while it has no interest in engaging in the kind of conflict that led to the sides fighting three wars over the past decade, it would not tolerate the Gaza militants’ continued efforts to breach the border and arson attacks on Israeli border communities.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas yesterday visited Moscow for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A Kremlin aide said they were expected to discuss the Middle East, bilateral projects and the transfer of the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The embassy move enraged Palestinians, who want East Jerusalem as capital of their future state.
On Friday, thousands of Palestinians gathered near the Gaza border for their near-weekly protest. Israeli troops shot dead a 15-year-old Palestinian who, the military claimed, had tried to climb over the fence into Israel.
The Gaza Health Ministry said Othman Rami Halles was killed east of Gaza City.
A 20-year-old hit by gunfire on Friday during the protests in the southern Gaza Strip had also died of his wounds, the ministry said, while a further 220 Palestinians were wounded in protests along the frontier.
Palestinians in Gaza have for months been demonstrating against Israel’s decade-long blockade of the territory and in support of their right to return to lands from which they were driven or fled during the war surrounding the creation of Israel in 1948.
At least 140 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the protests and clashes broke out along the border on March 30.
No Israeli has been killed. The Israeli blockade of Gaza was imposed after Hamas seized control of the territory in 2007 and has caused widespread hardship for its residents, including high unemployment, acute power shortages and lack of adequate medical care.