Israel carried out a series of air strikes against Hamas
group in Gaza early on Thursday, the army said, hours after more rockets
were fired from the Palestinian enclave.
The Israeli
army also announced it would close the border crossings between
blockaded Gaza and Israel — Kerem Shalom for goods and Erez for people —
from Thursday “due to the security events and in accordance with
security assessments”.
A military spokeswoman could not
say whether the closure would be for one day or more. In a statement,
the Israeli army said it had targeted three Hamas military facilities in
different parts of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
“The
military facilities were used as training and weapons storage
compounds,” the army said. “This was in response to the projectiles
fired at Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip,” the statement read.
A
Palestinian security source said there were more than 10 strikes on the
targets, which included a Hamas naval facility and a military base near
the Shati refugee camp in northern Gaza. The source said there had been
significant damage to the targets, as well as lesser damage to nearby
houses, where some residents suffered minor injuries.
The
strikes came hours after Israel's air defence system intercepted two
rockets fired from Gaza. Such rockets are generally fired by fringe
militants groups but Israel holds Gaza's Hamas rulers responsible for
any fire from the territory.
There has been an uptick in
violence from Gaza since US President Donald Trump announced he would
recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital last week. There have been 12
projectiles fired at Israel from Gaza since December 6, with Israeli
retaliatory strikes targeting 10 sites in the Palestinian enclave.
The recent rocket fire has not caused any casualties in Israel.
While
an increase in rocket fire preceded the 2014 Gaza war, Israeli Defence
Minister Avigdor Lieberman played down the significance of the recent
launches on Thursday.
During a tour of Sderot, an Israeli
town lying a short distance from northern Gaza and where rockets have
often struck, he called it “a result of internal Palestinian struggles
between different organisations”.
One of the recent rockets hit a kindergarten in Sderot, but it struck at night and no one was hurt.
“I
hope the residents of Gaza will force their leadership to invest their
efforts and money in improving the strip's economy rather than digging
tunnels, producing rockets and firing them at Israel,” Lieberman said.
Since
unrest erupted last week over Trump's declaration, four Gazans have
been killed, two in clashes along the border and two Hamas militants in
an Israeli air strike. One Israeli has been seriously wounded in a
stabbing attack in Jerusalem.
