Israel aircraft attack Hamas targets after rocket fired from Gaza

Palestinians drive on a road as smoke billows, in the background, following an Israeli airstrike on Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip on Monday. (AFP / SAID KHATIB)

GAZA, Palestinian Territories: Israeli aircraft carried out a series of strikes in Gaza on Monday, wounding two people, health officials and witnesses said, after a rocket fired from the Palestinian territory struck southern Israel.
Witnesses said the aircraft attacked four security positions belonging to Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the Gaza Strip, and that the two people hurt were passers-by.
The Israeli military said that earlier a rocket fired from the enclave landed in an open area in southern Israel, causing no casualties. It had no immediate comment on the air strikes.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the Palestinian rocket fire. Israel has said that Hamas bears overall responsibility for what happens in the territory.
The group has observed a de-facto cease-fire with Israel since a 2014 war but small armed cells of Jihadist Salafis have continued to occasionally launch rockets at Israel. When those attacks occur, Hamas usually orders its fighters to vacate potential targets for Israeli retaliation. (Reporting by Nidal Al-Mughrabi