AhlulBayt News Agency - Israeli forces in the early morning on Saturday launched airstrikes at several sites in the besieged Gaza Strip, Israeli and local sources said.
Local sources said Israeli warplanes launched rockets at two sites reportedly used by al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas movement, in the southern part of Gaza City, and targeted missiles at five other locations allegedly used by al-Qassam Brigades and al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad.
Missiles struck a site in Beit Lahiya, a blacksmith workshop in the neighborhood of Zaytun, a site near the al-Irsal tower east of Jabaliya, empty land near an al-Quds Brigades' site northwest of Beit Lahiya, and a shed near an agricultural college east of Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip, according to locals.
However, an Israeli army statement reported that the Israeli army targeted four locations in the northern and central Gaza Strip that were "components of Hamas' operational infrastructure."
No injuries were reported, despite heavy property damage.
The statement said that the airstrikes on the besieged enclave were in response to a rocket launched from Gaza on Friday evening at southern Israel, striking the Israeli city of Sderot and causing damage to a building.
Israel holds the Hamas movement responsible for all rockets fired from the Gaza Strip, although other Palestinian militant groups are active in the small Palestinian enclave.
The majority of the more than 1.8 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip are sealed inside the coastal enclave due to a near-decade long military blockade imposed by Israel and upheld by Egypt on the southern border.
Gaza has been blockaded since 2007, a situation that has caused a decline in the standard of living, unprecedented levels of unemployment, and unrelenting poverty.
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