The Gaza Strip was "in a state of alarm" on Wednesday, August 28, after deadly explosions by two Palestinian police officers, who lost their lives in "two explosions targeting police checkpoints" late Tuesday night, the report said. Interior Ministry of Hamas-controlled Palestinian enclave, another Palestinian was injured, Reuters reported.
AFP journalists have reported a heightened presence of Hamas men on the main axes of the Palestinian enclave where two million Palestinians live.
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Authorities in Gaza have not specified the nature of these explosions. For its part, the Israeli army said it had not conducted any air raid in the night. The IDF bombed a Hamas military post in the Gaza Strip late Tuesday, after firing a shell into Israel.
Witnesses also told AFP that they saw no trace of air strikes near the scene of the explosions.
Fear of an escalation
A series of rocket attacks followed by Israeli retaliation since mid-August, as well as clashes on the border, raise fears of escalation between armed movements in Gaza and Israel in the run-up to the Israeli parliamentary elections on 17 September.
Israeli authorities have accused Hamas of being responsible for the latest violence that undermines a truce agreement negotiated by the UN and Egypt. This agreement provides for a reduction of the Israeli blockade on Gaza in exchange for the end of military operations since the Palestinian enclave. Specifically, the Israeli army accuses Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, of not doing enough to contain its ally Islamic Jihad, considered close to Iran, an enemy of Israel.
Meanwhile, after new rocket bursts from Gaza to Israel this weekend, the Israeli authorities halved supplies of fuel to Gaza, critical to powering the only power plant in the Palestinian enclave that is under Israeli blockade.
With AFP and Reuters