Gaza, June 23, 2012 (AFP)
Gaza, June 23, 2012 (AFP)
One Palestinian was killed and two were wounded on Friday, one seriously, when Israeli warplanes struck east of al-Bureij in the central Gaza Strip, medics said.
An Israeli military spokeswoman would only confirm to AFP that an air strike had taken place, and did not go into detail.
Earlier on Friday, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired two rockets that hit southern Israel, without causing casualties or damage.
The violence came despite a tenuous Egyptian-brokered truce between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers which was announced on Wednesday evening by the Islamists’ Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades military wing after a flurry of deadly exchanges in and around the territory.
Israel has said that its sudden spike in Gaza operations — three deadly air raids in just over 12 hours earlier this week — was “in no way related” to the border incident, with the military saying the air force was targeting militants about to attack the Jewish state.
Since Monday, more than 130 rockets and mortar rounds have been fired at Israel, one of which slammed into a border police post just north of Gaza, wounding four people.
The Hamas military wing said on Thursday that it had fired 120 rockets, a rare show of force from the Islamist group that had previously been observing a de facto truce.