Israel’s military said on Saturday that Israeli planes bombed Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip in retaliation for incendiary balloons fired from a Palestinian enclave.
There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the attack, which the military said was a rocket launching site and a compound belonging to Hamas, the Islamist group that rules Gaza. Hamas had no immediate comment.
Since the May 21 armistice ended 11 days of Israel-Hamas fighting, Palestinians in Gaza have sporadically launched balloons laden with incendiary material across the border, setting fire to farms in Israel. There is a fire in
Palestinians say the balloons are intended to pressure Israel to ease restrictions on the coastal enclave tightened during May’s fighting.
Most balloon launches were reduced after Israel eased some restrictions on Gaza.
But on Friday, balloons were fired again from Gaza, causing at least four brush fires in areas near the Israel-Gaza border.
The Israeli military said its airstrikes were “in response to the continuous launch of incendiary balloons from Gaza into Israel throughout the day.”
The blast along the Gaza border occurred on Friday when Israel separately opened fire on its northern border with Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah on the third day of a cross-border salvo amid widespread regional tensions with Iran.
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