Israeli army hits Hamas targets in Gaza after rocket attacks

dpa Tel Aviv The Israeli army early on Sunday said it struck Hamas targets in Gaza after rockets were fired from the area. The air force attacked a missil...

dpa Tel AvivThe Israeli army early on Sunday said it struck Hamas targets in Gaza after rockets were fired from the area.The air force attacked a missile workshop as well as Hamas bases along the border, Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said during a cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.He rejected reports that two rockets fired from the Gaza Strip on Saturday had been accidentally triggered by bad weather. They crashed into the sea off Greater Tel Aviv.Bennett stressed that Hamas was responsible for any firing from the Gaza Strip.The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said in a tweet in the early hours of Sunday that in response to “Gaza-terrorist rocket-fire ... we just struck Hamas sites in Gaza, including a rocket manufacturing site and military posts used for terrorist activity.” On Saturday the Israeli military had said that two rockets from the Gaza Strip went down in the sea off the Tel Aviv metropolitan area in the morning.Residents reported hearing at least two explosions in the area.The Palestinian militant organization Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, is classified as terrorist by Israel, the US and the EU.Israel engaged in an 11-day military conflict with Palestinian militants in Gaza in May. Egypt eventually brokered a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas that took effect on May 21. Since then, things have remained relatively quiet.However, tensions have built again in recent weeks partly due to the hunger strike of a Palestinian man linked to the militant group Islamic Jihad.A spokesperson for the Assaf Harofeh hospital near Tel Aviv said on Sunday that the 40-year-old’s condition was serious but not life-threatening.Islamic Jihad warned on Saturday of an “explosion” and threatened to end its ceasefire in the Gaza Strip if Israel did not release the man.