Israeli warplanes raid Gaza City

PALESTINE: Israeli warplanes launched four raids on Gaza City late Saturday, witnesses and security services reported, after a rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.

During the assault, an Israeli F-16 fired a missile at a target in the city’s Zeitoun district, but there were no casualties, said the sources.

Three of the raids targetted bases of the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip. These attacks caused significant damage both to the targets and to neighbouring houses.

Two other raids targetted the north and south of the city.

An Israeli army statement said it had carried out three air raids.

Two had targetted “terrorist targets” in the central Gaza Strip, in what appeared to be a reference to Brigade sites. A third had been on a tunnel intended for armed raids into Israel or operations against army positions along the border with the Gaza Strip, said the statement.

The army said the raids had come after a rocket was fired Saturday from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.

“This morning a rocket fired from Gaza fell in the western sector of the Negev (desert in southern Israel), without causing any casualties or damage,” an army spokeswoman said earlier. Last Sunday, Israeli tank fire on a group of militants in Gaza City killed one Palestinian, after rocket and mortar attacks on Israel and air raids launched in reprisal.

Since the beginning of the year, army figures show more than 60 rockets or mortar rounds have been fired into southern Israel.

AFP