One of the rockets was intercepted by the anti-missile shield, while three others fell in open fields, according to the Israeli army.
The Israeli army carried out strikes on positions of the Palestinian movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip early on Saturday in response to the firing of four rockets from this territory, it said in a statement.
During the night, alarm sirens sounded in the city of Ashkelon and other localities in southern Israel, bordering the Gaza Strip, to warn of rocket fire. “One of the rockets was intercepted by the missile shieldsaid the Israeli army in its statement adding that three others fell in open fields.
Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem denounced the strikes without reporting casualties. The last firing of rockets from Gaza and Israeli strikes on the Palestinian enclave date back to last June.
These shootings come the day after US President Joe Biden’s visit to the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel, where he met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem as part of his Middle East tour which also took him to Israel.
Biden on tour in the region
On Friday, the American president left the Jewish state on board a historic first direct flight to Saudi Arabia. Before that, Joe Biden announced $100 million in aid to the hospital network in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian sector of the Holy City occupied by Israel.
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If Joe Biden also pleaded for a “independent palestinian state” with a “territorial continuityhe said, however, that the conditions were not currently met to relaunch the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, stalled since 2014.
For the Hamas spokesperson,there is nothing new in US President Joe Biden’s speech on the Palestinian issue, except the consolidation of his bias for the vision of the occupationIsraeli.