The group that claimed responsibility for firing the rockets at Israel, calling itself the Omar Brigades, said the rocket fire on Wednesday was in retaliation for Hamas's killing of an Islamic state supporter a day earlier in Gaza.
Smoke trails are seen as rockets are launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel.. (photo credit:REUTERS)
A radical Islamist Salafist group posted a statement on Twitter on Thursday claiming responsibility for firing three rockets at Israel from theGaza Strip. Israel retaliated with at least three air strikes before dawn, hitting two training camps of the armed wing ofHamas Islamists who dominate the coastal territory and a third belonging to an Islamic jihad group, damaging buildings nearby but causing no casualties, medics and witnesses said.
The rocket strikes at Israel were the second such launching at Israel in the past week, marking an escalation since a hiatus in cross-border fire since a 50-day Israeli war with Hamas ended with an Egyptian-brokered truce in August.
The group that claimed responsibility for firing the rockets at Israel, calling itself the Omar Brigades, said the rocket fire on Wednesday was in retaliation for Hamas's killing of an Islamic state supporter a day earlier in Gaza.
"We are continuing with our jihad against the Jews, the enemies of God and no one will be able to deter us," the statement said, using the term in Arabic for holy war.
Gaza militants launched their deepest strike at Israel since a 50-day war of last summer, striking near the port city of Ashdod. Israel blamed Islamic Jihad militants for that rocket assault and launched retaliatory air strikes.
The latest rocket fire from Gaza came a day after a shootout on Tuesday in which Hamassecurity forces killed an activist of a rival Islamist militant group, killing a man active with a Salafist group - radicals supportive of struggles being led in the region by Islamic State and al-Qaida.
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