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Israel's army on Sunday battered a Hamas post in Gaza with artillery after a rocket was fired earlier from the Palestinian enclave but failed to reach Israeli territory, the army said.
A military spokesperson said that the rocket was fired towards Israel but fell within the Gaza Strip. The spokesperson backtracked on an earlier statement by the military, which stated that the rocket hit southern Israel.
"As the rocket fire endangered Israeli citizens and violated Israeli sovereignty, an IDF (Israel Defense Forces) tank targeted and destroyed a Hamas observation point in the southern Gaza Strip," the spokesperson said.
Members of Palestinian security forces loyal to Hamas ride a pickup truck as they patrol on the border with Egypt, in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip October 8, 2017.
The spokesperson stated that Israel holds Hamas – a Palestinian Islamist organization – responsible for any attack perpetrated against Israel from the Gaza Strip.
Israel regularly holds Hamas responsible for rocket fire, but some of the rockets have been fired by radical Salafi groups that object Hamas rule in Gaza.
The incident came amidst reconciliation attempts by the West Bank's Fatah government and Hamas, a Palestinian Islamist organization that controls the Palestinian enclave of Gaza.
After Israel concluded a 51-day-long bloody military campaign in Gaza in the summer of 2014, sporadic rocket fire from the Strip hit southern Israel, usually causing no injuries or damage. Israel usually retaliated by attacking Hamas positions.
(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)
