JERUSALEM: Israel carried out retaliatory strikes on Gaza on Saturday, killing one Palestinian and seriously wounding two, following two nights of rocket attacks that were the first since September, the Health Ministry said. Dozens of pre-dawn strikes targeted bases of Gaza rulers Hamas and allied militant groups, a Gaza security source said.
The Israeli Army said the strikes targeted “a wide range of Hamas terror targets,” including a naval base, a military compound and a weapons manufacturing plant.
The Health Ministry identified the person killed as Ahmed Al-Shehri, 27. It did not say whether he was affiliated with any armed group.
The sound of explosions was heard across the tiny but densely populated territory, AFP correspondents said.
After daybreak, curious onlookers gathered around a large crater scooped out of the sandy soil by the force of one of the blasts.
A Hamas source said it had fired at the Israeli aircraft carrying out the raids and the Israeli military confirmed fresh “incoming fire.”
The strikes came after at least 10 rockets were fired from Gaza at southern Israel late on Friday causing damage but no casualties.
The Israeli military said eight of the rockets were intercepted by air defenses. Air raid sirens sounded in Israeli communities near the border.
One family house was hit, without causing any casualties, the army said, posting a picture of the damage on Twitter.
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90 - Palestinians were wounded in this Friday’s rallies — first launched in March last year — that they have pressed on weekly with along the Gaza-Israel border.
It was the second consecutive evening that the army reported rocket fire from Gaza, shattering a calm that had lasted since Sept. 12.
In August, a spate of rocket attacks, retaliatory airstrikes and clashes along the border had raised fears of an escalation as a general election approached in Israel.
Those polls — Israel’s second general election this year — took place on Sept. 17, but have yet to yield a new government.
Sworn enemies Israel and Hamas have fought three wars in the Palestinian enclave since 2008.
Analysts say a fourth round remains likely. There have been repeated bouts of violence between Hamas and Israel over the past year as the Hamas leaders have sought to improve on the terms of a UN- and Egyptian-brokered cease-fire first hammered out in November last year.
In return for Hamas silencing the rockets, Israel agreed a package of measures to ease the crippling blockade it has imposed on Gaza for more than a decade.
They included allowing in millions of dollars in aid from Hamas ally Qatar to pay for fuel for the territory’s sole power station and cash for salaries and grants to tens of thousands of needy families.
The truce has also seen Israel expand the distance it allows Gaza fishermen out into the Mediterranean — although it reduces it or even cuts it to zero in response to violence from the enclave.
The Palestinians have also pressed on with weekly demonstrations along the Gaza-Israel border first launched in March last year.
The protests have frequently drawn live fire from Israel forces stationed along the heavily fortified border fence.
More than 90 Palestinians were wounded in this Friday’s demonstrations, according to the Health Ministry.
