Gaza City ablaze following an Israeli airstrike on Saturday. (AFP)

Israel strikes Gaza Strip after rocket fire: army

Israeli warplanes raided the Gaza Strip before dawn on Saturday in what officials said was a retaliatory strike for rocket fire from the Palestinian territory controlled by Hamas.

The exchange of fire came hours after US President Joe Biden had visited Israel and the West Bank.

“Fighter jets struck a military site in the central Gaza Strip belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation,” the Israeli army said. “The military site consists of an underground complex containing raw materials used for the manufacturing of rockets.”

The strike “will significantly impede and undermine Hamas’ force-building capabilities”, it said, adding Israel was responding to “attacks from the Gaza Strip on Israeli territory”.

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem denounced the strikes, which the official Palestinian news agency, WAFA, said caused no injuries. WAFA said Israeli missiles were fired at two locations, one “near a tourist resort” where nearby houses were severely damaged.

In further retaliation for the Gaza rocket fire, Israel said late on Saturday it was suspending a decision to increase the quota of permits for Gazans to work in the Jewish state. It was raised by 1500 permits before Mr Biden’s visit, allowing 15,500 Gazan workers into Israel. Hamas “carries responsibility for all activities directed against Israel in and from the Gaza Strip, and it will bear the consequences”, said the Israeli Defence Ministry body responsible for civil affairs in the Palestinian territories.

Read the report in The Australian. (AFP).