An Israeli combat helicopter has carried out an overnight aerial attack on the southern parts of the besieged Gaza Strip, claiming that the airstrike was conducted in response to a purported rocket attack from the impoverished enclave. RNA - The Israeli military said in a brief statement on its twitter account in the early hours of Saturday that an Israeli “attack helicopter targeted a Hamas military post in southern Gaza.”
There was no immediate report of possible casualties and the extent of damage inflicted in the Israeli airstrike.
The Israeli military also said its airstrike against the Palestinian resistance movement was “in response” to an alleged rocket fire from Gaza into the occupied territories on Friday night that fell in an open area and caused no casualties or damage.
Tel Aviv bombards Gaza from time to time, claiming the assaults are in response to rocket attacks of the resistance groups.
Earlier on Friday, a young Palestinian protester was killed and two others, including a medic, were wounded by Israeli troops’ live rounds east of the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip as thousands took part in a protesting rally along the border that separates Gaza Strip from the occupied territories.
The Gaza Strip has been witnessing tensions since March 30, which marked the start of the “Great March of Return” protests demanding the right to return for the Palestinians driven out of their homeland.
Those tensions saw a sharp rise on May 14, marking the 70th anniversary of the Nakba Day (the Day of Catastrophe), which this year coincided with the US embassy relocation from Tel Aviv to occupied Jerusalem al-Quds.
More than 240 Palestinians have so far been killed and over 20,000 others wounded in the renewed Gaza clashes, according to the latest figures released by the Gaza Health Ministry.
The territory has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty.
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