Israeli aircraft pounded 10 militant targets in Gaza in response to Palestinian projectile fire, its army said Sunday, shattering a ceasefire reached just days ago after the worst flare-up since a 2014 war.
The latest escalation came hours after thousands of Palestinians attended the funeral of a young female volunteer medic killed by Israeli fire in violence on the border in southern Gaza.
On Saturday evening, the Palestinians fired two projectiles at southern Israel, where air raid sirens sent residents to bomb shelters.
The Iron Dome aerial defence system intercepted one of the projectiles, while the other was believed to have fallen short of its target and hit within Gaza, according to the army.
In response to the initial fire by the Palestinians which consisted of two rockets, the Israeli air force launched strikes on 10 Hamas targets in Gaza.
Early on Sunday morning, two more projectiles were separately launched at Israel. Both were intercepted, the army said.
There were no immediate reports of casualties in Gaza.
Gaza mourns amidst Israel mighty shelling
On Tuesday, the Israeli military said that about 100 rockets and mortars were fired from Gaza toward Israel. Israel responded with 60 airstrikes.
The weekend launches were the first since Israel struck scores of militant sites in Gaza earlier this week in retaliation for a barrage of rockets and missiles fired from the territory.
Israeli soldiers Friday killed one Palestinian and injured at least a hundred others protesting in Gaza along the fence that separates the territory from Israel, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
The person killed was identified as medical nurse Razan Ashraf Al Najjar, 20, ministry officials said.
Ambulances and medical crews attended the funeral, with Najjar’s father holding the white blood-stained medics’ jacket she wore when she was shot, as mourners called for revenge.
Addressing Najjar’s death, the UN envoy for the Middle East, Nickolay Mladenov, said in a Saturday tweet that “Medical workers are #NotATarget!” and that “Israel needs to calibrate its use of force”.
Najjar’s death brings the toll of Gazans killed by Israeli fire since the end of March to 123.
The demonstrations and violence peaked on May 14 when at least 61 Palestinians were killed in clashes as tens of thousands of Gazans protested the US transfer of its embassy in Israel to the disputed city of Jerusalem the same day.
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