Israeli war jets hit southern Gaza targets

GAZA CITY (DPA) -- Israeli war jets struck two targets in southern Gaza Strip Saturday night in response to an earlier homemade projectile fired from Gaza at southern Israel.

No injuries were reported, witnesses and medics said.

The witnesses said that F16 war jets hovered over the southern Gaza Strip area and carried out two successive airstrikes. Air-to-ground rockets were fired and caused two huge explosions.

The first airstrike targeted an empty olive farm east of the city of Khan Younis and the second targeted a smuggling tunnel under the borderline between Egypt and the salient, ruled by the Hamas movement.

Medics at southern Gaza hospitals said that ambulances and rescue crews rushed to the theatre of the airstrikes; no injuries were reported.

The two Israeli airstrikes were carried out several hours after unknown militants fired earlier on Saturday a homemade rocket from Gaza at southern Israel. No one claimed responsibility for the attack.

Israeli Radio quoted Israeli army sources as saying that the rocket landed on an empty area in southern Israel causing no damages or injuries.

Israel's military said in a statement that its air force "targeted two terror-linked sites in the Southern Gaza Strip. Direct hits as well as secondary blasts were identified," it said.

The statement added that the Israeli army holds "the Hamas terrorist organization solely responsible for maintaining the calm in the Gaza Strip and for any terrorist activity emanating from it. The IDF will also continue to respond harshly to any attempt to use terror against the State of Israel."