JERUSALEM (JTA) — Palestinian terror groups in Gaza fired two rockets into southern Israel following retaliatory airstrikes by Israel that hit several Hamas military targets in the strip.
The rockets fired early Thursday morning by the terror groups landed in open areas and caused no injuries or damage.
Israel was retaliating for the launching of incendiary balloons into southern Israel and the firing of a rocket that landed in the Mediterranean Sea. Both came from Gaza. One of the balloons carrying a firebomb sparked a fire in a field near the Gaza border.
No one was injured in the Israeli strikes, the Palestinian Maan news agency reported.
The Israel Defense Forces spokesman said in a statement that Hamas, the terrorist group that runs the Gaza Strip, “bears responsibility for everything that is going on” there.
Following the firing of the rocket on Monday night that landed in the sea, Israel scaled back the permitted Gaza fishing zone from 15 nautical miles to 6 nautical miles, backtracking on a concession given under the unofficial cease-fire brokered by Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations.