(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Israeli aircraft hit Gaza yesterday for the first time since an August truce ended a 50-day war after a rocket hit the Jewish state, witnesses and the army said.
A Palestinian health ministry spokesman in the Gaza Strip said there were no casualties in the air strike, which came just hours after the rocket hit an open field in southern Israel on Friday without causing casualties or damage.
It was the third time a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave struck within Israel since the August 26 truce between Israel and Hamas, the territory's de facto rulers.
The Israeli army said the air strike in the southern Gaza Strip had "targeted a Hamas terror infrastructure site".
Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said the target was a concrete factory being used to repair tunnels in and out of Gaza, dozens of which Israel destroyed during the summer campaign.
The attack was "an unequivocal message to Hamas that we will not tolerate a return to a routine of sporadic firing at our citizens", Yaalon said, vowing Israel would "act forcefully" against Hamas "if it won't prevent attacks".
And Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reiterated that Israel would not ignore "even one rocket launch" at its territory.
"Hamas will bear the consequences of any escalation that might take place," he told soldiers at a ceremony in remarks distributed by his office.
Hamas did not say it was behind the rocket attack, but Israel holds it accountable for any rocket fire from Gaza.
Gaza's Hamas leader Ismail Haniya condemned Israel's "dangerous violation of the ceasefire", and in remarks to reporters urged Egypt to "move with urgency" to ensure the Jewish state respects the agreement.
The summer war between Israel and Hamas killed almost 2,200 Palestinians, most of them civilians, and 73 people on the Israeli side, nearly all of them soldiers.
The Egypt-brokered ceasefire was to have been followed by talks on a more lasting truce, but they were called off amid deteriorating ties between Cairo and Hamas.
Also yesterday, the navy fired warning shots after fishing boats sailed beyond the six nautical mile limit enforced by Israel off Gaza's coast.
A military spokeswoman said the vessels returned to waters where the navy allows them to operate.
l Egypt is to reopen the Rafah border crossing with Gaza today for the second time in two months to allow those stranded in Egypt to enter the Palestinian territory, officials said.
The Rafah crossing is the only access point to the Gaza Strip not controlled by Israel.
It was shut by Egypt in late October following a deadly bombing in the Sinai Peninsula, reopening briefly at the end of November to allow Palestinians stuck in Egypt to return home.
Police official Ali al-Azazi said a similar operation will take place from today and only for two days.
"Egypt will open the Rafah crossing Sunday and Monday to allow those stranded on the Egyptian side to go to Gaza," he said.
More than 3,500 Palestinians were stranded when Egypt closed the crossing after a suicide attack killed 30 soldiers in North Sinai on October 24, the United Nations said last month.
It was not immediately clear how many of them are still stranded.
Many Palestinians who travel through Rafah are students heading to universities in Egypt or beyond, or patients in need of medical treatment not available in Gaza.
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