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JERUSALEM: Israeli jets pounded Hamas positions in Gaza overnight after Palestinians staged a cross-border raid into southern Israel, the military said early Sunday.
“Israel Air Force fighter jets targeted a terror target in a military compound belonging to the Hamas terror organization in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip,” it said in an English-language statement.
A Palestinian security source in the coastal enclave said the planes hit a base of Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, causing damage but no injuries.
The strike on the Strip’s Islamist rulers came after four Palestinians “carrying bottles filled with flammable material” breached Gaza’s border fence on Saturday evening near the kibbutz of Kissufim, Israeli daily Haaretz reported, citing the army.
There, they attempted to torch heavy equipment used for work on the frontier barrier, an army spokeswoman told AFP.
The machinery was damaged but did not catch fire, and the attackers fled back into Gaza, she said.
No casualties were reported.
“The incident that took place yesterday is one of many severe incidents that have taken place in the security fence area,” the statement said.
Israel holds Hamas, which rules Gaza, accountable for all attacks launched from the blockaded coastal territory.
Speaking later Sunday, the head of Israeli military intelligence warned that further such incidents would make things worse for Hamas.
“Hamas is at a low point, suffering severe civilian and infrastructure crises,” Major General Herzl Halevi said at a conference.
“Hamas is running into the arms of Iran and exploiting civilians by sending them to the (security fence that divides Gaza and Israel),” he said.
“Hamas must understand such conduct will only make its situation worse.”
Late Sunday in a sign of heightened tensions, air raid sirens went off in southern Israel after the Iron Dome defense system was activated and launched a number of anti-missile projectiles.
A military spokeswoman told AFP that no projectiles were actually fired at Israel, with the Iron Dome possibly set off by machine gunfire in Gaza.
Last month there was a surge in cross-border violence, seen as among the most serious since Israel and Hamas fought a war in 2014 — their third since 2008.
After a bomb wounded four Israeli soldiers inspecting the border fence on February 17, Israel responded by pounding 18 Hamas facilities in two waves of air strikes.
Israeli ground forces also killed two Palestinian teenagers in cross-border fire.