Gaza City, March 23: An Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip overnight injured four people, Palestinian security officials and witnesses said Tuesday.
The Israeli army confirmed the air raid and said it hit a weapons storage facility.
The four casualties, including a woman, were slightly hurt by shell fragments when an Israeli aircraft fired a missile on a building in the east part of Gaza City, the security officials said.
The building, which was empty at the time, was destroyed and three neighbouring houses were damaged.
“The attack is in response to the recent firing of rockets at Israel’s southern communities over the past few days,” the Israeli military said.
Late Monday, Israeli troops and Palestinian resistance fighters exchanged gunfire near the Kissufim crossing point into the Gaza Strip, Israel’s Channel 10 television reported.
And in a separate incident an Israeli soldier was killed in a “friendly fire” incident near the border with Gaza as the military was tracking Palestinians late on Monday, an Israeli army spokesman said.
Israel’s war on Gaza killed nearly 1,400 Palestinians, mainly civilians, and wounded 5,450 others.
Human rights groups, both international and Israeli, slammed Israel’s siege of Gaza, branding it “collective punishment.”
Gaza is still considered under Israeli occupation as Israel controls air, sea and land access to the Strip.
—Agencies