ADDS STATEMENT FROM HAMAS</p> <p>By Mustafa Haboush</p> <p>GAZA CITY/JERUSALEM (AA) – Israel carried out intensive overnight air attacks inside the blockaded Gaza Strip early Friday morning, injuring at least four Palestinians, according to Palestinian sources.</p> <p>“Two civilians were injured in Gaza City while two others were hurt in the southern city of Rafah,” Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesman for Gaza’s Health Ministry, said.</p> <p>According to an Israeli army statement, the strikes came in response to two rockets fired from Gaza towards Tel Aviv on Thursday evening.</p> <p>Fighter jets and helicopters struck around 100 Hamas targets inside the Gaza Strip, the army said, including sites affiliated with the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades (Hamas’s armed wing) and Saraya al-Quds (Islamic Jihad’s armed wing).</p> <p>“Targets included Hamas's Gaza City headquarters, an underground rocket facility and several military posts,” the army statement read.</p> <p>Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, for their part, have denied any responsibility for the alleged rocket attack, with both groups issuing statements holding Israel responsible for the latest escalation.</p> <p>Hamas, for its part, accused Israel of attempting to “manufacture a new crisis” in Gaza.</p> <p>“The targeting of civilian and resistance sites in Gaza constitutes yet another Israeli crime against our people,” Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement.</p> <p>“We will never allow Palestinian blood to be used as a bargaining chip for Israeli politicians to win votes,” he added, referring to upcoming Israeli elections slated for April 9.</p> <p>Thursday’s alleged rocket salvo was the first to be fired toward the greater Tel Aviv area since Israel’s devastating 51-day onslaught against Gaza in mid-2014.
- Writing by Ali Abo Rezeg
