The Israeli army targeted positions of the Palestinian movement Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Saturday July 16, in response to the firing of four rockets from this territory, it said in a press release.   

During the night, alarm sirens sounded in the city of Ashkelon and other localities in southern Israel, bordering the Gaza Strip, to warn of rocket fire.  

"One of the rockets was intercepted by the missile shield," the Israeli army said in its statement, adding that three others fell in open fields.     

In retaliation, the army carried out a series of airstrikes on Hamas positions in the Palestinian enclave, under Israeli blockade for 15 years. 

"Fighter planes targeted a Hamas weapons manufacturing site" in the central Gaza Strip, the statement continued.

According to the army, it is "one of the most important rocket manufacturing sites in the Gaza Strip". 

Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem denounced the strikes without reporting casualties.  

The site of an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City on July 16, 2022. © Reuters - Ibraheem Abu Mustafa

The last firing of rockets from Gaza and Israeli strikes on the Palestinian enclave date back to last June. 

 "Nothing new" after Joe Biden's visit 

These shootings come the day after US President Joe Biden's visit to the West Bank, Palestinian territory occupied by Israel, where he met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Bethlehem as part of his Middle East tour which also took him to Israel. 

On Friday, the American president left the Jewish state on board a historic first direct flight to Saudi Arabia.

Before that, Joe Biden announced $100 million in aid to the hospital network in East Jerusalem, the Palestinian sector of the Holy City occupied by Israel.    

On another level, Joe Biden announced a plan to deploy 4G in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, where 3G and 2G rule respectively.  

If Joe Biden also pleaded for an "independent Palestinian state" with "territorial continuity", he however affirmed that the conditions were not currently met to relaunch the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, stalled since 2014.     

For Hamas spokesman, "there is nothing new in US President Joe Biden's speech on the Palestinian question, except the consolidation of his bias for the vision of the Israeli occupation" . 

With AFP 

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