Israel intercepts Hamas ‘machineguns’ after overnight air strikes

OCCUPIED JERUSALEM — Israel’s Iron Dome anti-missile shield was fired on Sunday against machinegun fire reportedly originating in the Hamas-dominated Gaza Strip, and not against incoming rockets, the Israeli occupation army said on Sunday.

About 10 Iron Dome rockets could be seen rising into the night sky, but there was no indication that militants in the Gaza Strip had fired rockets, a military spokeswoman said, quoted by Reuters. She said the firing detected was from machine guns.

Earlier, Israeli media had reported that Iron Dome had intercepted a number of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.

Overnight on Sunday, Israeli jets pounded Hamas positions in Gaza after Palestinians reportedly staged a cross-border raid into southern Israel, the military said early Sunday. 

“Israel Air Force fighter jets targeted a terror target in a military compound belonging to the Hamas terror organisation in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip,” it said in an English-language statement. 

A Palestinian security source in the coastal enclave said the planes hit a base of Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, causing damage, but no injuries, according to Agence France-Presse.  

The strike on the organisation came after four Palestinians “carrying bottles filled with flammable material” breached Gaza’s border fence on Saturday evening near the kibbutz of Kissufim, Israeli daily Haaretz reported, citing the forces. 

There, they attempted to torch heavy equipment used for work on the frontier barrier, an army spokeswoman told AFP. 

The machinery was damaged, but did not catch fire, and the attackers fled back into Gaza, she said. 

No casualties were reported. 

Israel holds Hamas, which rules Gaza, accountable for all attacks launched from the blockaded coastal territory. 

Last month there was a surge in cross-border violence, seen as among the most serious since Israel and Hamas fought a war in 2014 — their third since 2008. 

After a bomb wounded four Israeli soldiers inspecting the border fence on February 17, Israel responded by pounding 18 Hamas facilities in two waves of air strikes. 

Israeli ground forces also killed two Palestinian teenagers in cross-border fire. 

Last Sunday, Israel said that it had carried out air strikes against an underground Hamas facility in the Gaza Strip. 

It said its ground forces had also destroyed a partly built tunnel that could have been used for attacks on Israel.