Israeli war jets struck early on Saturday facilities of militant groups in the Gaza Strip in response to earlier rockets attack from the coastal enclave into southern Israel, security sources and local media said.
The sources and the Gaza-based local media said that Israeli war jets struck a military facility that belongs to Islamic Hamas movement in eastern Gaza, and another one in central Gaza Strip.
Residents in eastern and central Gaza Strip heard the noise of the Israeli fighter jets and the bombings.
No injuries or damage were reported.
Earlier on Friday evening, three rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, where two of the three rockets were intercepted by the Israeli army’s Iron Dome defense system and the rest one landed on an empty land.
Israeli media said no injuries or damage were reported. No one or group has claimed responsibility for launching the rockets.
Tension between Israel and the Palestinians has been mounting over the past two days after two teenagers, who stabbed an Israeli police officer in the old city of Jerusalem, were killed on Thursday.
Earlier on Friday afternoon, a Palestinian drove a car, ran over two Israelis and wounded them south of the West Bank city of Bethlehem.
A police officer shot and killed the driver.
At least 63 Palestinians were injured on Friday afternoon during clashes with Israeli soldiers in eastern Gaza Strip, close to the border with Israel, medics said.
Ashraf al-Qedra, Health Ministry Spokesman in Gaza, told reporters that 63 Palestinian demonstrators were injured, including 32 who were shot by live ammunition and taken to hospitals for medical treatment.
He said that among the casualties, there were 17 children and three women.
The clashes broke out when hundreds of Palestinian demonstrators gathered in eastern Gaza Strip, close to the border with Israel as part of their participation in the weekly anti-Israel rallies, better known as the Great March of Return.
The weekly anti-Israel protests have been going on for the 70th week in-a-row, since it had started in March 30 last year, where 307 demonstrators were killed and more than 17,000 injured by Israeli soldiers’ gunfire.
Leaders of Hamas and other factions, who are part of the highest commission of the march of return, stressed that the protests will continue until it achieves its goals of ending the Israeli siege, during their participation in Friday’s rally.
Israel has been imposing a blockade on the Gaza Strip, a home for two million Palestinians, right after Hamas had violently seized control of the impoverished coastal enclave in the summer of 2007.
Xinhua/NAN
