GAZA CITY: An Israeli tank struck two Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip late on Sunday after bullets were fired from the Palestinian enclave, the Israeli army said.
Two observation points belonging to the armed wing of the movement were struck in the northern part of the enclave, the army said.
Palestinian security sources said there had been no casualties.
It was the second night in a row that Israel had struck the coastal territory.
The strikes came ahead of a planned protest on Friday in which Palestinians have been urged to camp along Gaza’s border with Israel.
On Sunday night, Israel’s Iron Dome missile defense system was activated and sirens sounded near the border, but it later turned out these were false alarms.
The army said it was investigating why the systems turned on, but said “unusual machine gun fire toward Israel was identified.”
Hamas’s armed wing began a military training operation Sunday which is expected to end Monday morning.
It included firing rockets into the sea, Palestinian security sources said.
Israel is wary of Friday’s planned protests to mark Land Day, which commemorates the death of six unarmed protesters in 1976.
The protest is expected to grow from then until around May 14, the date the US is set to inaugurate its capital in Jerusalem.
US President Donald Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the embassy there infuriated Palestinians.
Israel strikes Hamas in Gaza for second day
Updated 27 March 2018