(GAZA) Israeli warplanes attacked several military sites in the Gaza Strip early Sunday, hours after Palestinian militants fired a missile at southern Israel amid rising tensions in the occupied West Bank, Israel said.
Israel’s military said the airstrikes targeted a weapons factory and an underground tunnel belonging to the Hamas group, which has controlled Gaza since 2007.
No Palestinian group has claimed responsibility for Saturday night’s rocket fire at an open area near the wall between Gaza and Israel. The border has been quiet since a three-day ambush in August between Israel and Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a smaller Gazan armed group than Hamas.
Hamas and other factions largely honored informal agreements that kept the impoverished territory quiet in exchange for thousands of Israeli work permits. Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade on Gaza to prevent Hamas from stockpiling weapons.
“Tonight’s strike continues progress in preventing Hamas from building up,” the Israeli military said.
Critics of the blockade say it is collective punishment that harms Gaza’s 2.3 million residents.
While Gaza remains calm, tension has been rising for months in the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority enjoys limited autonomy in parts of the territory.
Israel has carried out almost daily attacks targeting Palestinians involved in planning or participating in Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the spring that killed 19 people.
The military says the raids are aimed at dismantling militant networks and deterring future attacks, but Palestinians say they are now in Israel’s 56th open-ended occupation.e the year Nine more people were killed in recent Palestinian attacks on Israeli targets.
More than 140 Palestinians have been killed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict this year. The Israeli military says most of the Palestinians killed were militants. But stone-throwing youths protesting Israeli army incursions and others not participating in the clashes have also been killed.
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