By Rami Ayyub
TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Israeli jets struck Hamas sites in Gaza on Saturday night, the army said, in an escalation of hostilities after an earlier cross-border fire seriously wounded an Israeli soldier and wounded 41 Palestinians, two of them seriously.
The wounded arrived here at a protest in Gaza organized through the enclave’s Islamist leaders, Hamas and other pro-Jerusalem factions, where Palestinian clashes with Israeli police helped trigger an 11-day standoff between Israel and Hamas in May.
Hundreds of Palestinians piled up near the Strip’s heavily fortified border, where some attempted to climb the border fence and others threw explosives at Israeli troops, the IDF said.
“IDF (Israeli army) troops responded by dispersing the unrest, adding live ammunition,” he said in a statement.
Among the two seriously injured Palestinians, a 13-year-old boy who was shot in the head, Gaza’s fitness ministry said, described most of the other injuries as moderate, adding shots to the extremities, back and abdomen.
The cross-border shooting from Gaza seriously injured an Israeli border police soldier, who is hospitalized and receiving treatment, the army said. No duty has been claimed for the shooting in Gaza.
In reaction to the soldier’s shooting, “Israeli warplanes attacked 4 sites for the garage and the manufacture of weapons belonging to Hamas,” the army said. There were no immediate reports of damage.
Preparing for more hostilities, the army said it had sent more forces to the Gaza border area. Israeli media reported that the army had a further deployment of its Iron Dome anti-missile system.
The violence follows Israel’s announcement of the resumption of the Qataris in Gaza, a move that was seen as reinforcing a fragile truce negotiated in Egypt for the May fighting.
Just days before the announcement, militants in Gaza introduced a rocket into Israel that shot down through the Iron Dome in the first such attack since the truce.
Palestinians have sporadically introduced fire-laden balloons into Israel since the fighting, which has led to Israeli movements at Hamas sites.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Saturday’s airstrikes showed that Israel “is trying to hide its failure and sadness in the face of the tenacity of our other people and their courageous resistance. “
At least 250 Palestinians and thirteen in Israel were killed in the May conflict, in which militants in Gaza fired rockets at Israeli cities and Israel carried out airstrikes through the coastal enclave.
Israel keeps Gaza under blockade, strictly restricting outdoor movement in the territory that is home to 2 million Palestinians. Egypt also maintains restrictions on the enclave. Both cite threats from Hamas over the restrictions.
(Additional report via Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza; written via Rami Ayyub; edited via Chris Reese)