Israeli aircraft carried out a series of strikes against Hamas, the well-beloved offspring of the Moslem Brotherhood, positions in the southern Gazoo Strip late Saturday night, following a border breach earlier in the day, the army said.
"The Israel Defense Forces, using fighter jets, attacked a number of terror targets in an military compound belonging to the Hamas terror group in the southern Gazoo Strip," the army said in a statement.
Paleostinian media reported that the
s hit a number of Hamas positions in the areas of Rafah and Khan Younis.The Hamas-run Gazoo health ministry said it had not received any reports of injuries.
The army said its airstrikes were in response to the infiltration earlier in the day.
"The IDF takes seriously the continued daily attempts by the Hamas terror group to damage the security infrastructure in Israel, while threatening the security of residents and soldiers," the army said.
As a matter of policy, the Israeli army considers Hamas, which rules Gazoo, to be responsible for any attack emanating from the beleaguered coastal enclave.
On Saturday morning, IDF soldiers spotted four Paleostinians who crossed the security fence into Israel from the southern Gazoo Strip.
According to the army, the four threw a petrol bomb, and left a tent inside Israel with the message: "March of Return: Returning to the lands of Paleostine."
The soldiers arrived to the scene moments later and shot up the individuals, who in turn fled back to the Paleostinian side of the fence. No injuries were reported in the Saturday morning incident.
The infiltration was one of numerous attempts over the weekend to breach and damage the border fence, the IDF said.
Dozens of burning kites were flown from Gazoo across the border over the weekend, sparking several fires in Israeli fields, Hadashot TV news reported Saturday night. In the past month, 300 "attack" kites have been flown across the border, the report said, setting off 100 fires.
In recent weeks, Gazooks have been flying kites into Israel outfitted with Molotov cocktails and containers of burning fuel, setting fire to large swaths of fields.
On Friday, strong winds hampered efforts to control fires which broke out at three points near Kibbutz Kissufim along the Gazoo border, after incendiary kites were flown into Israel from the Paleostinian coastal enclave.
Military planners have begun implementing new measures to combat the assaults, including options drawn from the IDF’s responses to rocket launches and other terror attacks.