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Smoke is visible following an Israeli air strike over Gaza City on January 15, 2020. The Israeli military has said four rockets have been fired from Gaza, the first since the US assassination of General Soleimani. MAHMUD HAMS / AFP

An explosive device hung from balloons was found this Friday by the sea in the Israeli city of Ashdod, located some 30 kilometers from the Gaza Strip. Already yesterday, two explosive devices sent by the same process had landed in Israeli territory. The Israeli air force carried out a reprisal last night in a bombing in the Palestinian enclave. Since Wednesday, tension has increased again between Israel and the armed groups in Gaza.

With our correspondent in Jerusalem , Guilhem Delteil

For several weeks, calm had reigned along the separation barrier between the Gaza Strip and Israeli territory. The organizers of the "Great March of Return", a protest movement launched in March 2018 in the Palestinian enclave, had reduced the frequency of rallies, which were often sources of tension. And no explosives had been sent from Palestinian territory to Israel.

But on Wednesday January 15, the firing of four rockets - attributed to the Islamic Jihad - broke this calm. And the next day, groups in the Gaza Strip then resumed sending balloons with explosive devices. Israel responded by bombing infrastructure of Hamas, the ruling movement in the Palestinian enclave. Sending a new explosive device this Friday is a third hostile act in as many days.

Since the US assassination of Iranian General Qassem Soleimani earlier this month, Israel has considered retaliation against him. The Islamic Jihad is an ally of Iran and the head of Hamas was present at the funeral of this high ranking officer. But this renewed tension seems rather to be linked to Hamas' impatience with Israel. The group calls for a reduction of the blockade imposed on the territory and its number two in Gaza warned that the movement " would not accept that 2020 be like the previous year ".