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Israel launches Gaza air strikes after rocket attack
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Israel and Palestinian militants appear to be pulling back from further hostilities after Israel carried out air strikes following a rocket attack from the Gaza Strip.
This could be because it launched early, our rights have expired, there was a legal issue, or for another reason.
No casualties were reported on either side of the border, and the Israeli defence minister, Moshe Yaalon, blamed the rocket attack late on Tuesday on “elements in the Islamic Jihad”, an Islamist group in the Hamas-run enclave.
Israeli media reported that infighting among Islamic Jihad militants may have precipitated the rocket firing without the permission of Hamas authorities.
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The reports said Hamas, whose forces are dominant in the territory of 1.8 million Palestinians, had arrested Islamic Jihad members behind the rocket strike, the furthest into Israel since the end of last year’s 50-day Gaza war.
The projectile struck near the Israeli port city of Ashdod, 12 miles from the Gaza frontier, Israeli security forces said.
An Islamic Jihad spokesman was not available to comment. Hamas officials had no comment on the reported arrests.
Israeli warplanes hit back early on Wednesday, striking four “terror infrastructures” in the southern Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said. Gaza residents said the targets included training camps used by Islamic Jihad militants.
Related: Hamas executed 23 Palestinians under cover of Gaza conflict, says Amnesty
No further fighting was reported, and it appeared that Israel chose to attack evacuated or open areas in a signal to Hamas that it hoped to avoid escalation.
Israel issued a warning that further rocket strikes would draw a more powerful response. “If there is no quiet in Israel, the Gaza Strip will pay a very heavy price, which will cause anyone planning to challenge us to regret their actions,” Yaalon said in a statement.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, said Israel was responsible for “the escalation last night and it must stop these foolish acts”.
Last year militants in Gaza launched thousands of rockets and mortar bombs into Israel during a July-August war in which Israeli shelling and air strikes battered the enclave.
The region has been largely quiet since an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire that halted seven weeks of fighting.