Israel launches airstrikes on Gaza

Gaza, July 01: Israeli aircraft have fired five rockets at the Gaza Strip, striking three targets, witnesses and Palestinian security officials say.

Israeli F-16 aircraft fired two rockets at a airport in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah early Thursday.

The rockets hit the Yasser Arafat Airport, which is currently not in service, in southern Gaza. The same airport was also hit in February.

Another strike targeted an official Hamas base in the center of the coastal strip. There are no reports of casualties in either of the attacks.

Over the past three years, Israel has killed hundreds of Palestinians in airstrikes targeting civilian and official buildings.

Three other rockets were fired on areas belonging to Hamas’ armed-wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, including underground tunnels used by Gaza residents to bring in essential commodities banned by the Israeli government, dpa quoted Palestinian security officials as saying.

——Agencies