Monitoring Desk
ISLAMABAD/JERUSALEM: Israel forces conducted air strikes on the central Gaza Strip early on Thursday
The Israeli strikes come hours after it intercepted rockets fired from the Palestinian territory.
According to the AFP, a round of rockets was fired from Gaza in response to the Israeli strikes, and explosions were heard in Gaza city.
In a statement, the Israeli military confirmed it was “striking in Gaza Strip”.
Air Strikes
According to Gaza locals and witnesses, in the first strikes, at least seven targeted a training centre of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the militant wing of the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas. The training centre is located in the Al-Maghazi refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
Local security said that a second round of Israeli air strikes by the Israeli military hit the training centre of al-Qassam Brigades in the southwest of Gaza City.
After the first air strike, an AFP reporter saw at least two rockets fired into an Israeli military base from the Gaza Strip, and witnesses said many more Israeli rockets were fired from various places.
Gaza, densely with a population of 2.3 million, has been under the Israeli force blockade since Hamas took power in 2007.
The famous Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a secular Palestinian armed group, has claimed to carry out “a barrage of rocket attacks in response to the Israeli attack on the Gaza Strip.”
Warning sirens blared in Sderot, a town in southern Israel, which is close to the Gaza Strip.
