Israeli aircraft have bombed sites belonging to the militant Hamas group in Gaza for a fifth night in a row, the Israel defence force says.
The military said early on Sunday that the airstrikes were in response to arson balloons that Hamas-affiliated groups sent across the Gaza frontier into Israeli territory.
Clashes also broke out in the evening along the Gaza-Israeli border, the army said. A statement released by the Israel military said dozens of Palestinians burned tyres and hurled explosive devices and grenades towards the security fence while attempting to approach it.
The Gaza health ministry said two demonstrators were wounded by Israeli gunfire.
Over the past week Israeli forces have carried out repeated night-time strikes on targets linked to the Islamist group Hamas, which controls Gaza.
The army says they are in response to the use of makeshift firebombs, attached to balloons and kites, that have been sent into parts of southern Israel, causing thousands of fires in Israeli farms and communities.
There were 19 such Palestinian attacks on Saturday, according to Israeli rescue services.
In response the army said “IDF fighter jets and aircraft struck a number of Hamas military targets in the Gaza Strip”. It said the targets hit included “a military compound and underground infrastructure” belonging to Hamas.
Israel has also closed its Kerem Shalom goods crossing with Gaza and reduced the territory’s permitted Mediterranean coastal fishing zone, in response to the recent balloon launches.
Despite a 2019 truce backed by the UN, Egypt and Qatar, the two sides clash sporadically with rockets, mortar fire and incendiary balloons.
Gaza has a population of two million, more than half of whom live in poverty, according to the World Bank.
Hamas “is responsible for all events transpiring in the Gaza Strip and emanating from it, and will bear the consequences for terror activity against Israeli civilians”, the IDF said.
Khalil al-Hayya, a senior Hamas official, accused Israel on Saturday of not honouring an informal truce to ease the blockade it has imposed on Gaza since Hamas took it over in 2007.
He told Hamas al-Aqsa TV that the Palestinian people in Gaza were experiencing slow death by the blockade.
