(Gaza) The Israeli army announced Friday that it had launched an airstrike on Gaza in response to violence during a border rally, during which several Palestinians were injured, according to health officials.
This strike is the first since early July, when Israel responded with third-party rockets from Gaza, in response to the deadliest Israeli operation in the occupied West Bank in years.
According to the army, the target of this strike was “a military post belonging to the Hamas terrorist organization in the north of the Gaza Strip”.
A military spokesman said the strike targeted an area where Palestinians had gathered earlier Friday, near the permanently closed Karni crossing.
A security source in the Palestinian territory said, on condition of anonymity, that Israel had “bombed a resistance observation post east of Gaza City.”
No injuries were reported immediately following the strike.
Earlier in the day, an AFP journalist at the protest saw Palestinians throwing stones and explosives at Israeli forces across the border, and two protesters being shot and injured.
Plumes of black smoke filled the area as Palestinians set tires on fire.
According to the Gaza Strip’s Ministry of Health, 12 Palestinians were injured during various rallies along the border.
The Israeli army said that “several explosive devices and grenades” were thrown at soldiers, but none were injured.
The airstrike comes after an explosion Wednesday that killed at least five Palestinians during a border rally.
A witness declared that this device, carried by a demonstrator, could be a grenade.
The Gaza Strip, a poor and cramped Palestinian territory, has been subject to an Israeli blockade since the Islamist movement Hamas took power there in 2007.
In recent years, numerous wars have pitted Gaza activists against Israeli forces.
In May, Israel and Palestinian armed groups clashed with airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and rockets fired towards Israeli soil. This violence cost the lives of 34 Palestinians and one Israeli woman.