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Gaza Militants Fire on Israel after Overnight Raids | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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JERUSALEM, (AFP) – Militants in Gaza fired a projectile into southern Israel on Friday just hours after Israeli warplanes carried out a series of raids across the coastal strip, a military spokeswoman told AFP.

She said it was not clear whether it was a mortar round or a rocket which slammed into the Shaar HaNegev area close to Gaza’s northeastern border with Israel. It caused no injuries or damage.

At least six rockets or mortar rounds have been fired across the border since Monday in what has become a near daily occurrence.

Overnight, two Gazans in the Hamas security forces were wounded in Gaza City when Israel launched a series of retaliatory air strikes after an earlier rocket attack, Palestinian witnesses said.

Israel also mounted air strikes in the north and in the southern border city of Rafah, targeting a smuggling tunnel. No one was injured, witnesses said.

The raids came after a rocket and mortar round were fired into southern Israel on Thursday, causing neither damage nor casualties.

The latest violence comes as Israel marks the second and last day of Jewish New Year and as Muslims in the West Bank and Gaza Strip begin celebrating the three-day Eid al-Fitr holiday marking the end of the fasting month of Ramadan.

Hamas, the radical Islamist movement that rules Gaza, has reined in rocket attacks by militants since the end of Israel’s devastating 22-day offensive against the coastal territory in January 2009.

However since the start of 2010, militants have fired more than 100 rockets or mortar rounds into southern Israel, the army said.