Israel carries out air strike on Gaza over balloon bombs, rockets

The Israeli army has said it carried out air attacks against Hamas positions in the Gaza Strip on Sunday in response to rocket attacks and firebombs sent into Israeli territory attached to balloons. The aircraft of Israel have bombed sites belonging to the militant Hamas group in Gaza for a fifth night in a row, the Israel defence force said.

The Israeli military said dozens of Palestinians “burnt tyres, hurled explosive devices and grenades towards the security fence and attempted to approach it”. The forces have carried out repeated night-time strikes on targets linked to Hamas that controls the Gaza Strip. There were 19 such Palestinian attacks on Saturday alone, Israeli rescue services said. In response the army said “IDF fighter jets and aircraft struck a number of Hamas military targets in the Gaza Strip”. It said the targets hit included “a military compound and underground infrastructure” belonging to Hamas. The Gaza health ministry said two demonstrators were wounded by Israeli gunfire.

Israel has closed its Kerem Shalom goods crossing with Gaza and reduced the territory’s permitted Mediterranean coastal fishing zone in response to the latest balloon launches. Hamas “is responsible for all events transpiring in the Gaza Strip and emanating from it, and will bear the consequences for terror activity against Israeli civilians”, the IDF said.

The Gaza Strip has a population of two million, more than half of whom live in poverty, World Bank figures indicate.