JERUSALEM, Sept. 16 (Xinhua) -- Gaza militants fired rockets at southern Israel and Israeli planes hit sites in Gaza on Wednesday in an escalation following the signing of normalization deals between Israel and two Arab countries.
Israel's military said in a statement that war jets and attack helicopters struck at least ten Hamas sites in the Gaza Strip.
The struck sites included an underground infrastructure, a weapons and explosives manufacturing factory, and a military compound used for training and rocket launching experiments by Hamas.
According to the army, at least 13 rockets hit southern Israel overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday. The Iron Dome aerial defense system intercepted eight of the rockets.
The army warned that it views any fire against Israel "with great severity" and is "ready to continue operating as necessary against attempts to harm Israeli civilians or sovereignty."
On Tuesday night, during the signing ceremony of peace pacts between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in White House, Gaza militants fired rockets at two cities in southern Israel, injuring two men and damaging cars and shops at a shopping mall in Ashdod.
The Palestinian leadership, which has long accused the U.S. President Donald Trump administration of being biased in favor of Israel, condemned the deals.
Palestinian officials said the deals betrayal the Palestinian cause of ending the Israeli occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, which were first seized by Israel during a 1967 war.
Previously, only two Arab countries, Egypt and Jordan, had signed peace agreements with Israel. Enditem
