Air force strikes Hamas after rocket attack on South

In the retaliatory operation, an aircraft struck “Hamas terrorist infrastructure,” the IDF Spokesman’s Office said, adding that the target was accurately hit.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
Light streak trail is seen as a rocket is launched from the northern Gaza Strip towards Israel July 29, 2014 (photo credit: REUTERS)
Light streak trail is seen as a rocket is launched from the northern Gaza Strip towards Israel July 29, 2014
(photo credit: REUTERS)
The Israel Air Force attacked a Hamas target in central Gaza on Friday night, hours after a Palestinian rocket exploded in southern Israel.
In the retaliatory operation, an aircraft struck “Hamas terrorist infrastructure,” the IDF Spokesman’s Office said, adding that the target was accurately hit.
“The attack occurred in response to the rocket fire at Israeli territory earlier in the afternoon,” the military said.
“Hamas is the party responsible for what takes place in the Gaza Strip.”
On Friday afternoon, a Palestinian terrorist fired a rocket that exploded harmlessly in the Kissufim region, about a kilometer away from the security fence that runs along the border. The projectile did not trigger warning sirens in the area.
In recent months, a radical jihadist-Salafi group calling itself the Omar Hadid Brigades – named after a key figure who helped Abu Musab al-Zarqawi set up and run al-Qaida in Iraq a decade ago – has attempted to challenge Hamas’s rule in the Strip.
The Omar Brigades group is responsible for a growing number of rocket attacks, and hopes to spark a new conflict that will weaken Gaza’s rulers and enable it to fill the resulting power vacuum.
Hamas arrested members of the group following past rocket attacks, and stepped up its attempts to enforce the truce with Israel, which came into effect in August ending a 50-day conflict.
In previous attacks, on July 16 the IAF struck a terrorist target in Gaza following a rocket attack, three rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza in June and one rocket was fired in May.