Israeli warplanes strike Hamas targets in Gaza

GAZA CITY, Palestine

Israeli warplanes carried out airstrikes against positions of Palestinian resistance group Hamas in the Gaza Strip early Monday, according to the Israeli army.

The airstrikes targeted a Hamas tunnel and some military points, the army said in a statement.

The attacks were carried out in retaliation for the launching of incendiary balloons from Gaza, it added.

No information on casualties has been reported so far.

According to information obtained from Palestinian sources, the warplanes struck observation and military posts of the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas’s military wing, in the city of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army has intensified its raids on Gaza over the past week along with tightening a blockade under which it has banned the entry of fuel for Gaza’s sole power plant, plunging the Palestinian territory into darkness.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Hamas earlier that Israel considers every incendiary balloon a missile.

Mean while, Israel has banned all imports except food and medical supplies into the Gaza Strip, a Palestinian official told Anadolu Agency on Sunday.

“All private sector companies have been notified of the Israeli decision to stop the entry of all commodities and goods, except food and medicine,” said the official, who preferred to be unnamed.

There was no comment from the Israeli government on the report.

Israel has cut fuel imports into Gaza since last week as part of punitive measures over the launch of fire-bomb balloons from the strip.

Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has groaned under a crippling Israeli blockade that has deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many vital commodities, including food, fuel and medicine.