Gazans Fires Rocket; Israel Strikes Back

Israel struck two targets in the Gaza Strip after a rocket was fired from Gaza into Israel. The rocket landed in an open area but did not cause any damage or casualties. An Israeli army spokesman said that so far this year, nine rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel, and that Israel holds the Islamist Hamas movement responsible. A Salafi group in Gaza took responsibility for the rocket, and said it was in retaliation for a Hamas wave of arrests of its members. Meanwhile, a United Nations official sharply criticized a planned decision by Hamas to publicly execute 13 criminals. “I urge Hamas not to carry out these executions and I call on [PA] President [Mahmoud] Abbas to establish a moratorium on the implementation of the death penalty,” UN special coordinator for the Middle East peace process Nikolay Mladenov told the Security Council in New York. He also called on Hamas to ensure that cement that is being sent into the Strip to rebuild homes destroyed or damaged in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in 2014 not be diverted to military purposes such as building tunnels. The statement came after a senior Israeli official charged that Hamas is siphoning off 95 percent of the cement sent to Gaza.