Israel pounds Gaza after Palestinian rocket attack

The airstrike struck a Hamas rocket manufacturing facility and military posts.

By Associated Press

Israeli aircraft struck several sites belonging to Hamas in the Gaza Strip early Saturday after Palestinian terrorists fired two rockets at southern Israel.

The airstrike targets included rocket manufacturing facility and training and military posts belonging to Hamas, which has ruled Gaza for over a decade.

Palestinian media reported the airstrikes shattered windows in east Gaza City. There were no reports of casualties.

The Palestinian rockets fired on Friday were aimed at the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon, but air defenses intercepted them, the military said. No Palestinian group in Gaza claimed responsibility for the rocket fire.

Volleys of missiles from the Iron Dome defense system illuminated the sky in northern Gaza Strip as they hit the incoming rockets.

Palestinian rocket attacks are frequent, but they have largely been subdued in recent months due to the raging coronavirus outbreak.

Hamas which has ruled Gaza since 2007 and fought three wars with Israel and countless rounds of smaller skirmishes, maintains an unofficial cease-fire with Israel.

The terror group perpetrates widespread human rights abuses against its own population in addition to funding and training Palestinian terror cells in Judea and Samaria that launch terror attacks on Israeli civilians.

Hamas receives millions in aid from Iran, which funds other terror proxies in the region, including Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Houthis in Yemen.