The Israeli military struck targets in the Gaza Strip early on Tuesday in response to a rocket fired from the enclave hours earlier, the <i>Times of Israel</i> has reported. The rocket attack from <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/gaza/" target="_blank">Gaza</a> was the first in four months and has ended one of the longest periods of peace on the border for years. The Israeli military said that it bombed a number of targets, including a <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/who-are-hamas-the-militant-group-running-gaza-1.1222508" target="_blank">Hamas</a> weapons manufacturing site, the newspaper reported. “The IDF considers Hamas responsible for what unfolds in the Gaza Strip,” the army said. Hamas-affiliated media reported that the Israeli air strikes targeted a site operated by Palestinian factions west of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damages, said the newspaper. The rocket fired into <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/tags/israel/" target="_blank">Israel</a> on Monday from the Palestinian enclave of Gaza was shot down by air defences, the Israeli army said. "Sirens sounded in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip. One rocket was fired from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory. The rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome air defence system," the military said. The incident came after a weekend of violence <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/mena/2022/04/15/injuries-at-al-aqsa-after-israeli-police-fire-tear-gas-on-worshippers/" target="_blank">in and around Al Aqsa Mosque</a> compound in Jerusalem, where mostly Palestinian demonstrators were wounded. The increased tensions coincided with <a href="https://www.thenationalnews.com/uae/ramadan/" target="_blank">Ramadan</a> and the Jewish festival of Passover. The government of Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said that Israeli security forces have a "free hand" to deal with demonstrators. Hamas, the Islamist movement that controls the besieged coastal enclave of Gaza, said on Sunday that "Al Aqsa is ours and ours alone" and swore to defend Palestinians' right to pray there.
