(Jerusalem) The Israeli army said on Saturday that it intercepted a “small plane” over the Gaza Strip, where witnesses told AFP they heard “explosions” near the border.
The army stressed that these were not rockets or other fire that would have posed a threat to the Israelis. “It was not a projectile launch,” the army said in a statement indicating routine operations are continuing on the home front.
It was not immediately clear whether the military fired on the plane to intercept it. The latter did not specify where the aircraft was going or where it came from, nor provided details on the plane.
The increase in deadly violence observed since 1er January between Israel and the Palestinians raised fears of a new cycle of violence and prompted numerous international calls for calm.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, on Friday called on all parties to come out of “the illogicality of escalation”.
Israel carried out airstrikes Thursday against the Gaza Strip, hours after intercepting a rocket fired from Palestinian territory.
On Saturday, the Gaza-based Islamic Jihad group said in a statement that its leader Ziad al-Nakhala had traveled to Cairo to meet with Egyptian intelligence chief Abbas Kamel, whose country regularly mediates between Israelis and Palestinians.
The statement said the two sides discussed “the situation in Jerusalem and the West Bank, particularly in Jenin”, the scene of deadly violence in recent semesters.
The meeting follows a Tuesday visit by Abbas Kamel to Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, where he met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Since the beginning of the year, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has claimed the lives of 36 Palestinian adults and children, including militants and civilians but also attackers.
Six Israeli civilians, including a child, and one Ukrainian civilian were killed during the same period.
Gaza, with a population of 2.3 million, has been under Israeli blockade since Hamas took power in 2007.