Israel strikes "targets" in Gaza, retaliating rocket fire

Source: Xinhua| 2018-08-09 03:36:29|Editor: Mu Xuequan
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JERUSALEM, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- Israel's military said its air force was striking "terror sites" in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday night, after rockets from the besieged Palestinian enclave were launched towards Israel.

Local media reported that large-scale airstrikes were launched towards the northern Gaza Strip, primarily in the Jabaliya area in northwestern Gaza Strip and in the Rafah area in southern Gaza.

Local Palestinian radio stations said Israeli war jets carried out a series of airstrikes on Gaza military facilities that belong to Islamic Hamas movement's militants.

Eyewitnesses in northwest Gaza city said they heard two huge explosions after Israeli drones and war jest hovered over the area.

Medical sources said that no injuries were reported in the Israeli airstrikes, where security sources and local radio station reported that the Israeli army will carry out more airstrikes on military facilities in the Gaza Strip.

Israel's defense ministry summoned the top military command to a "situation assessment" in Tel Aviv, according to a statement released by the defense ministry.

Earlier in the evening, eight rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip towards southern Israel, a military spokesperson said in a statement. Two rockets were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome anti-rocket system, said the spokesperson.

Zaki Heller, a spokesman for Magen David Adom, Israel's Red Cross, said a 34-year-old man sustained light-to-moderate injuries in his limbs, apparently inflicted by glass broken during the explosion.

Additionally, a man in his twenties sustained light injuries in his legs. They were both evacuated to a hospital, Heller said.

A military statement confirmed that Code Red alerts were prompted in Sderot and Sha'ar HaNegev.

Television broadcast from Sderot showed panicked residents screaming as a projectile fell near a home, damaging several cars. It was not immediately clear if the damage was caused by the rockets or the residues of the Iron Dome interceptors.

Police Spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said that police bomb disposal units were at the scene, and the area was closed off.

A day earlier, two Hamas fighters were killed in Gaza in an Israeli artillery attack, which Israeli forces said was carried out under the misconception that Hamas had shot toward them.

Hamas vowed to retaliate the killing.

On Wednesday, the Israeli military raised the level of alert along the Gaza border. The military warned Hamas that it "will not tolerate any aggression against Israeli civilians or IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers, and is prepared for a wide variety of scenarios."

The recent incidents are expected to hamper Egypt's effort to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian group that runs Gaza.

The recent round of violence between Israel and the besieged Palestinian enclave has claimed the lives of at least 140 Palestinians and an Israeli soldier since March 30.

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