In retaliation, Israel attacks Gaza terror targets
After a projectile fired from Gaza into Israel landed in an open area
The Israel Defense Forces reported a projectile was fired into southern Israeli territory Wednesday night, landing in an open area in the Negev.
There were no injuries reported and the defense forces are searching the area.
An Israel Air Force aircraft subsequently attacked subsequently attacked two terror targets, the military said in a statement.
Tensions have been escalating along the Israel-Gaza border.
Last month an airstrike was launched against Gaza in retaliation to rockets launched by Hamas on Israel’s southern coast and gunfire aimed at Israeli troops near the border fence.
"My policy is to respond strongly to any rocket fire,” said the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanayhu. "We are firm in this response.”
Hamas accused Israel of risking a new round of conflict.
Most recently, on Friday, a faction of the Palestinian Fatah party's armed wing in the Gaza Strip, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, said it was behind failed overnight rocket fire toward Israel, in the first such claim since the 2014 Gaza war.
The group issued an official statement claiming it had fired two rockets towards the Eshkol Regional Council in southern Israel at 11:15 p.m. local time, promising that "the coming days will bring an escalation against the Israeli occupation."
Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008.
Since the last round in 2014, a fragile ceasefire along the largely closed border had been generally observed.
However, on March 1, a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip landed in an open area in Hof Ashkelon Regional Council also in Israel's south.
Missiles and rockets are occasionally fired at Israel but such attacks often attributed to other Islamist groups inside impoverished Gaza.