Israel launches ‘dozens’ of Gaza strikes after rocket attack

GAZA CITY — Israel said Monday its forces carried out dozens of air and tank strikes in Gaza in response to a rocket that hit a southern Israeli town.

Palestinian medical officials said four people were wounded in the strikes launched after a rocket was fired from Gaza into the city of Sderot without causing any casualties.

"We conducted strikes against several dozen targets in the Gaza Strip" on Sunday, an army spokeswoman told AFP.

The military said it stopped all strikes before midnight, but an AFP journalist in the strip said explosions were heard until about 4:00 am.

Security sources in the territory said several targets in northern Gaza were hit by Israeli fire, and that a reservoir in the city of Beit Hanoun was destroyed.

Bases of Hamas' military wing, the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, as well as of two smaller groups were hit, the security officials said.

Turkey, whose parliament on Saturday ratified normalisation of ties with Israel after a six-year rift, slammed the Israeli strikes.

"We strongly condemn these disproportionate attacks", its foreign ministry said in a statement. "These attacks, which caused injury to innocent Palestinian civilians, are unacceptable whatever prompted them."

"The normalisation of our country's relations with Israel does not mean we will stay silent in the face of such attacks against the Palestinian people," it added.

There were no reports of further attacks Monday.

"The current situation on the ground in Gaza is stable and calm has returned, but we don't know the intentions of the [Israeli] occupation," interior ministry spokesman Iyad Bozum said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack on Sderot.

A spokesman for Hamas in Gaza, Sami Abu Zuhri, said Israel "carries responsibility for the escalation in the Gaza Strip and this new aggression will not succeed" in weakening the movement.