Rocket from Gaza Strip hits Israeli border town - police

[oberliner]

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip hit a street in the Israeli border town of Sderot on Wednesday, causing no casualties, police said.

After the attack, Israeli tank shells struck an observation post belonging to the Hamas Islamist group that rules the Gaza Strip. Local residents and Hamas-run media said no one was hurt at the position, near the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack. Hamas controls the Gaza Strip and has observed a de facto ceasefire with Israel since 2014, but small armed cells of Jihadist Salafis still occasionally fire rockets into Israel.

A photograph distributed by police showed metal fragments and a small crater in a street in Sderot. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said on Twitter the blast caused some damage, but no injuries were reported.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-idUSKCN1250NB

[Eugene]

1. Updated headline at Reuters link: Israeli aircraft attack Hamas in Gaza after rocket hits Israeli to

Source: Reuters

WORLD NEWS | Wed Oct 5, 2016 | 12:15pm EDT

Israeli aircraft attack Hamas in Gaza after rocket hits Israeli town

By Nidal al-Mughrabi | GAZA

Israeli aircraft attacked Palestinian militant targets in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, wounding at least one person, witnesses said, after a rocket fired from the enclave hit an Israeli border town.

Israeli police said there were no casualties in the rocket strike on Sderot, but Israel has a declared policy of responding militarily to any attack from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

Three Hamas training camps and a security complex were targeted in the air strikes and a passerby was hurt, witnesses said. The Israeli military blamed Hamas for the rocket.

"Today's (rocket) attack ... is the direct result of Hamas's terror agenda in the Gaza Strip that encourages deliberate attacks against Israeli civilians," spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said in a statement.

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Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-israel-palestinians-idUSKCN1250NB