An Israeli air strike hit a Hamas site in the Gaza Strip on Monday following a rocket fire from the Palestinian territory, the Israeli military said, Anadolu Agency reported.
“This morning, a rocket was fired from Gaza at Israel and did not hit Israeli territory. In response, IAF [Israeli Air Force] struck a Hamas military post in Gaza,” the Israeli military tweeted.
Palestinian security sources and eyewitnesses said that at least one Israeli artillery shell hit a military post belonging to what they called the “Palestinian resistance,” east of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza, next to the border with Israel.
The shelling caused material damages, though no human injuries or casualties were reported.
An Israeli army spokesperson said that early Monday morning, sirens went off in the Shaar Hanegev area of southern Israel — which borders the northeastern Gaza Strip — alerting the residents of the area that a rocket had been fired in their direction.
No rockets hit Israeli territory, the spokesperson added, and “in response to the rocket fire, Israeli air forces targeted a Hamas military post in the northern Gaza Strip.”
No injuries were reported in the strike.
Though Hamas fighters rarely launch the rockets, Israel strikes their locations in response, arguing the Palestinian group is responsible for controlling other armed groups because it governs the coastal enclave.
In July and August of 2014, Israel waged a weeks-long military offensive against the Gaza Strip with the ostensible aim of staunching rocket fire from the coastal enclave.
Over 2,160 Palestinians, mostly civilians, were killed — and some 11,000 injured — during the 51-day onslaught. Some 73 Israelis, mostly soldiers, were killed in the offensive.
The majority of the more than 1.8 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are sealed inside the coastal enclave due to a near-decade long military blockade imposed by Israel and upheld by Egypt on the southern border.
The crippling blockade was imposed following the victory of Hamas in the 2006 Palestinian elections and the subsequent 2007 clashes between Fatah and Hamas, which left Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip and Fatah in control of the occupied West Bank.
The Israeli army has previously said it holds the Hamas movement — the de facto rulers of the Gaza Strip — responsible for all attacks from the territory, although other Palestinian militant groups are active in the small coastal enclave.
