GAZA, May 29 (Xinhua) -- Islamic Hamas movement and the Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility in a joint statement Tuesday for firing barrages of mortars and rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
"Al Qassam Brigades and al Quds Brigades claim join responsibility for striking military posts and Zionist settlements near Gaza with dozens of projectiles during Tuesday in response to the Zionist entity aggression and its crimes against our people and our militants."
The two groups said in a joint statement emailed to reporters that "Firing mortars and rockets was a response to the Israeli aggression and its crimes against the Palestinian people and their men of resistance."
The two militant groups, which accused Israel for starting this round of escalation to escape from paying the price for its crimes it committed against civilians, said "strikes for strikes and blood for blood and we won't let the enemy to create new equations on the ground."
During Tuesday, Islamic Jihad and Hamas militants fired dozens of mortars, projectiles and rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, where Israeli war jets launched intensive successive airstrikes on the two groups' military facilities.
The Israeli army said in an official statement that 116 rockets and projectiles were fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli communities close to the borders between the Gaza Strip and Israel, while Israeli war planes carried out around 80 separate successive airstrikes on militants' facilities.
Tension in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the Palestinians has been escalating since March 30, when the Palestinians organized rallies and protests and called it the "Great March of Return," calling on Israel to lift 11 years of a blockade imposed on Gaza.
