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Medics say 4 civilians injured in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza

Xinhua, May 5, 2016 Adjust font size:

At least four civilians were injured early Thursday in Israeli airstrikes on Gaza, local medics said.

The wounded included a 65-year-old man and three children under the age of 14, said Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesman of the Gaza health ministry.

He described the injuries, from shrapnel of Israeli missiles, as light to moderate.

Security officials in Gaza told reporters that Israeli war jets carried out a series of airstrikes very early in the morning on Thursday, and that one of the airstrikes targeted a goldsmith workshop in southern Gaza city.

Israeli missiles also hit training facilities and military posts belonging to Islamic Jihad in western, eastern and northern Gaza Strip. No injuries were reported in those attacks.

Tension in Gaza between the Israeli army and Gaza militants flared up Wednesday morning when militants fired at Israeli soldiers operating near the fence of the borders inside the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli side responded by firing three tank shells on eastern Gaza.

The Israeli army said that the aim of the ground operation was to search for tunnels the militants are using to carry out attacks against Israel.

Militants fired back five mortar shells on an Israeli army base east of the borders between Gaza city and Israel. No injuries were reported.

Late Wednesday evening, Israeli war jets fired five missiles on areas suspected of having tunnels in southern Gaza Strip.

Israel and the Islamic Hamas movement, which rules the Gaza Strip, traded accusations that the other side was responsible for the flare-up.

Hamas has demanded that Israel pull out its ground forces immediately.

Meanwhile, security officials in Gaza said on Thursday morning that Israeli forces have moved their bulldozers and tanks, which had rolled around 300 meters into the territory of eastern Gaza Strip, closer to the fence of the borders.

Well-informed sources, close to Hamas, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Xinhua that Egypt intervened between Hamas and Israel to defuse the growing tension between the two sides.

The sources said that on Thursday morning, Israel responded to Egypt's mediation and pulled out its ground forces from the area, while Hamas and other militants refrained from firing mortars and attacking the Israelis.

Musa Abu Marzooq, a senior Hamas leader based in Qatar, wrote on his Facebook page in Arabic that the Egyptians facilitated a truce agreement between Hamas and Israel.

In 2014, Israel waged a large-scale military operation on Gaza that lasted 51 days, leaving 2,200 Palestinians and more than 70 Israelis dead, in addition to destruction of houses and infrastructure in the enclave. Endit