Israeli plane hits militant targets in Gaza after rocket fire

Israel’s military said early Sunday that it launched strikes on terrorist targets in the Gaza Strip, a day after rockets were fired from Hamas-ruled territory. Video shot over Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip shows three massive explosions and fighter jets can be heard flying overhead. There was no immediate confirmation on possible casualties.

The Israeli military said the attacks targeted a rocket manufacturing facility and a military outpost for Hamas. It also held the militant Islamist group responsible for any violence emanating from the area under its control.

The airstrikes come Saturday in retaliation for two rockets fired from Gaza that landed in the Mediterranean from central Israel.

It was unclear whether the rockets were meant to hit Israel, but Gaza-based terrorist groups often test missiles toward the sea. No casualties were reported from Saturday’s rocket launch.

Apart from a single incident in September, there have been no cross-border rocket fires since the 11-day war between Israel and Hamas ended in May.

The ceasefire mediated by Egypt and other mediators has been fragile. The extremist Hamas group says Israel did not take serious steps to ease the blockade it imposed on Gaza with Egyptian help when the Islamic movement took control of the coastal enclave in 2007.

Tensions are also high as other groups such as the smaller but more radical Islamic Jihad have threatened a military escalation if Israel does not end the administrative detention of a Palestinian prisoner who has been on a hunger strike for more than 130 days.

On Wednesday, Palestinian militants in Gaza shot and lightly wounded an Israeli civilian near a security fence and Israel responded with tank fire targeting several Hamas sites in the first exchange of fire in months .

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