The Israeli military has struck in Gaza hours after it intercepted a rocket launched from Gaza and following appeals from the United States for all sides to calm escalating violence in Israel and the occupied West Bank.
There were no immediate reports of serious casualties from the attack early on Thursday.
The military said its aircraft targeted rocket and weapon production sites used by Hamas, the Islamist group than runs the blockaded strip, in response to Wednesday’s rocket launch.
Powerful explosions shook buildings and lit up the night sky over Gaza as warning sirens sounded again in Israeli areas around the strip warning of more incoming rocket fire before dawn on Thursday.
There was no claim of responsibility for Wednesday’s rocket from Hamas or the smaller Iran-backed Islamic Jihad movement, which fired rockets at Israel last week.
The armed wing of the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine said it had launched rocket salvos at Israel early on Thursday in response to the air strikes and the “systematic aggression” against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
The exchange of fire underlined the tensions between Israel and the Palestinians after a Palestinian gunman shot dead seven people near a synagogue in East Jerusalem and an Israeli raid in a West Bank refugee camp killed 10 Palestinians.
Read the article in The Canberra Times (AAP).