Israeli fighter jets strike central Gaza, with no immediate reports of casualties in the blockaded Palestinian territory.
Israel has conducted air strikes on the central areas of besieged Gaza hours after intercepting a rocket fired from Palestine’s territory, according to the AFP news agency and witnesses.
An AFP reporter on Thursday saw two more rockets fired at Israel from the blockaded enclave after the strikes, and witnesses saw a third.
In a statement issued at 2:41 am (0041 GMT), the Israeli army confirmed it was “currently striking” Gaza.
The Israeli military said it struck Gaza as sirens warning of incoming rocket fire sounded again in Israeli areas around the Palestinian enclave.
There were no immediate reports of casualties on either side.
The 2.3 million residents of Gaza live under a crippling Israeli blockade, from land, sea and air, that critics say amounts to collective punishment.
Israel occupied the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza during the 1967 Arab-Israel War. It annexed the entire East Jerusalem city in 1980.
Palestine sees East Jerusalem, along with Gaza, as part of its country with East Jerusalem as the capital.
Under international law, the West Bank and East Jerusalem are “occupied territories” and all Jewish settlement-building activities on the land are illegal.
Palestinians accuse Israel of waging an aggressive campaign to “Judaise” the historic city by effacing its Palestinian Arab and Islamic identity and driving out its Palestinian inhabitants.
Almost 500,000 illegal Israeli settlers live in over 130 settlements dotting the occupied West Bank alongside nearly three million Palestinians living under Israeli military occupation.
