Israel Retaliates for Evening Rocket Attack from Gaza

Israel struck what its military called “two rocket manufacturing sites, underground infrastructure and a training facility for the Hamas terror group’s naval force” in the Gaza Strip overnight between Saturday and Sunday. The air strikes came after a rocket launched from the Palestinian enclave struck a warehouse near the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon. There were no casualties reported on either side. It was not immediately clear who launched the rocket, but Israel ultimately holds Hamas responsible for any attacks on it that emanate from the Gaza Strip, which the Islamist group has ruled since 2007. Separately, an Israeli tank fired at a Hamas post, apparently without having been ordered to do so. The incident is being investigated by the military, which is also scrutinizing why its Iron Dome air-defense missile system failed to intercept the rocket that struck the warehouse. The latest cross-border activity comes exactly a week after similar rocket fire and Israeli retaliatory strikes, although Hamas claimed those launches had been inadvertently caused by static electricity following lightning strikes.