Israel strikes Hamas targets in Gaza after rocket hits house
Israel has carried out strikes on Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip, hours after a rocket hit a house north of Tel Aviv.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the office of Hamas’s political leader and the group’s military intelligence headquarters were among the targets.
Gaza’s health ministry said seven people were injured in the strikes.
Air strikes continued overnight. Dozens of rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip, Israel said, and air raid sirens sounded across southern Israel.
The IDF had earlier blamed Hamas, which controls Gaza, for the launch of the rocket that hit the Israeli community of Mishmeret, injuring seven people.
“Israel will not tolerate this, I will not tolerate this,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told reporters during a ceremony in Washington at which US President Donald Trump formally recognised Israeli sovereignty over the occupied Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war.
“Israel is responding forcefully to this wanton aggression,” Mr Netanyahu added. He later cut short his US visit and returned to Israel.
Mr Trump denounced the attack as “despicable” and said the US “recognises Israel’s absolute right to defend itself”.
So far no Palestinian militant group has said it fired the rocket. One unnamed Hamas official said it had “no interest” in doing so.
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On Tuesday morning the IDF said it had launched 15 attacks in the northern Gaza Strip in retaliation for rockets being fired into Israeli territory.
It said earlier that about 30 rockets had been fired into Israel since 22:00 local time (20:00 GMT) on Monday.
One house in the southern Israeli town of Sderot was damaged on Monday evening but no injuries were reported. Israel’s Iron Dome missile defence system shot several rockets down and the majority fell in open fields, officials added.
Schools in Israeli communities near the Gaza border were closed on Tuesday, reports said.
Hamas officials had said that a ceasefire had been reached with the help of Egyptian mediators but Israel did not comment on the claim.