Israel launches airstrikes on Gaza

Israeli F-16 warplanes carried out several strikes Friday on the Gaza Strip after Palestinian militants fired a mortar shell from the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave into Israel.

The first airstrike in the evening targeted a training field inside a security compound run by the deposed Hamas government and slightly injured a bystander.

Minutes later, the planes dropped two bombs on tunnels under Gaza's southern border with Egypt. So far there has been no report on casualties in the second raid.

Early in the morning, Israel Radio reported that a mortar shell had landed in western Negev and caused no casualties or damage.

Most of Hamas security and police facilities have been evacuated as a preventive measure to reduce casualties in any possible Israeli attacks, especially after Hamas claimed responsibility for killing four Jewish settlers and wounding two in two separate operations in the West Bank last week.

Source: Xinhua