Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) on Friday confirmed an air strike on the Gaza strip earlier in the day as the Quartet of Middle East peace mediators were meeting in Moscow.Israeli aircraft struck six targets in the Gaza strip early Friday, in response to a deadly Palestinian rocket attack against the Jewish state one day ago, said the IDF.
Among the targets are a weapons-manufacturing site in the north of the strip and five tunnels in southern Gaza, two of which are suspected of being used for military attacks against Israel, the IDF said in a statement released hours after the strikes.
The attacks started shortly after midnight and the first one targeted a hilly land to the east of Khan Younis city in southern Gaza. Residents said militants used to stand there to watch the borders between Gaza and Israel.
Another raid in Gaza city destroyed a metal workshop, witnesses said. Israel believes blacksmith workshops are used to produce rockets that Gaza factions fire on Israel.
In the third aerial bombing, F-16 warplanes dropped five bombs on the tunnels, damaging three underground sandy passages, residents in Rafah city said.
The air strike came a day after a Qassam rocket launched from Gaza landed in a Kibbutz in Ashkelon and exploded in a greenhouse. A Thai worker died after being hit and seriously injured.
A pro-al Qaeda group, Jund Anssar Al-Sunna brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack.
The Israeli army vowed to continue acting against such attacks, saying it "holds Hamas as solely responsible for maintaining peace and quiet in the Gaza Strip."
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