Gaza City, Aug. 10, (dpa/GNA) – An Israeli aircraft struck an observation post in the northern Gaza Strip late on Sunday, the Israeli military said, an apparent reaction to people sending incendiary balloons across the border towards Israel.
The post belonged to the radical Islamist Hamas movement, which rules the coastal enclave, the Israeli military said.
Hamas security sources reported no injuries.
The attack came shortly after masked Palestinians launched incendiary balloons across the Strip into Israel, setting alight agricultural fields.
A previously unknown group calling itself Wa’ed al-Tahrir, or the Promise of Liberation, claimed responsibility for the launch. Their balloons had explosives attached to them.
The group said in a leaflet that the balloons were partially intended as revenge for alleged Israeli measures against “innocent women” in the West Bank, against Palestinian prisoners and against the al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.
Israel captured Gaza from Egypt in the 1967 Six-Day War, but unilaterally pulled out its army and evacuated its settlements in the Strip in 2005.
Israel, however, continues to control Gaza’s borders, along with Egypt. Israel frequently closes crossings in response to rocket fire and violence along the border.
The last major conflict between Israel and Hamas was in 2014. Since then, violence has flared up from time to time, despite an informal Egyptian-brokered Hamas-Israel truce.
GNA