JERUSALEM, April 27 (Xinhua) -- Israel fired artillery shells at a Hamas post in the Gaza Strip, shortly after gunshots fired from the besieged Palestinian enclave, causing no injuries, the military said on Thursday.
A military spokesman said shots were fired toward Israeli forces that were "carrying out routine activity" near the fence with the southern Gaza Strip at about 11:00 a.m. local time (8:00 GMT).
Less than an hour later, an Israel Defense Forces(IDF) tank targeted a post belonging to the Hamas movement in the southern Gaza Strip, the spokesman added.
The gunshots came after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said the National Palestinian Authority (PNA) will stop paying Israel for Gaza's electricity supply, a move widely perceived as part of a struggle to restore PNA's control in Gaza.
Israel seized the West Bank and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Middle East war and has controlled them ever since.
Israel's last massive offense in the Gaza Strip concluded in 2014. Since then, sporadic exchanges of fire have occurred on both sides of the border but never evolved into a full-blown war.
