Four rockets hit Negev as IAF bombs Gaza targets

Hamas security officials said Sunday morning that Israeli aircraft targeted a Gaza City warehouse in an overnight airstrike.

The officials said the warehouse was empty and no one was injured.

The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the strike, saying the target was used by militants as a weapons warehouse. The military added that the Israel Air Force jets also bombed two smuggling tunnels under the Egypt-Gaza border.

On Sunday morning, militants in Gaza fired four Qassam rockets at the western Negev. Three rockets hit the Eshkol region and one struck the Sdot Negev region. No injuries or damage were reported in any of the incidents, but the early warning siren was not activated, causing panic among some local residents.

Rocket fire by Gaza militants and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes have become nearly daily occurrences. Israel halted a military offensive aimed at ending the rocket fire on Jan. 18, but sporadic violence persists as Egypt-mediated talks on a long-term truce have failed to yield results.

On Saturday, the IAF bombed a smuggling tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip after militants in the coastal territory fired at least three rockets into Israel.

The rockets hit the western Negev, causing no injuries or damage.

Meanwhile, a member of an Islamic Jihad rocket squad was killed and two others were wounded Saturday in what a Palestinian medic said was an Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip. The IDF denied carrying out any operation in Gaza at the time of the incident.