JERUSALEM – The Israeli air force attacked two sites in Gaza today, said the army, after Gazans clashed with forces on the border and launched incendiary balloons at southern Israel.
“IDF (Israel Defence Forces) fighter jets struck a Hamas military compound used for manufacturing weapons and training, as well as an entrance to a terror tunnel adjacent to Jabalia,” said a statement from the army.
"The strikes were in response to Hamas launching incendiary balloons into Israeli territory and the violent riots that took place yesterday.”
It said both incidents are “examples of how Hamas continues to employ terror tactics and target civilians”.
There were no reports from Gaza on casualties caused by the Israeli strikes.
Yesterday evening, two wildfires broke out in the Eshkol region near the Palestinian enclave, said Israeli firefighters.
Protests erupted later in the day, with the Israeli army firing tear gas and stun grenades as Palestinians burned tyres on the border between Gaza and Israel, said an AFP reporter.
The Health Ministry in Gaza said 11 Palestinians were hurt in the clashes, three of them by live fire.
Earlier yesterday, Gazans laid to rest Omar Hassan Abu al-Nile, 12, who died of his wounds after being shot by Israeli forces during border clashes a week earlier.
In 2018, Gazans began a protest movement demanding an end to Israel’s blockade, and the right for Palestinians to return to lands they fled or were expelled from when the Jewish state was founded in 1948.
The often-violent weekly demonstrations backed by Hamas, the Islamist militant group that rules Gaza, sputtered as Israel killed some 350 Palestinians in the territory over more than a year.
Hamas and Israel then fought a devastating 11-day conflict in May, the worst between the two sides in years, which ended with an informal truce.
Incendiary balloons from Gaza have continued in the following months, with Israel blaming Hamas.
Israel has at the same time been easing restrictions on civilian life and commerce for the territory it has blockaded since 2007, when Hamas took power. – AFP, August 29, 2021
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