Israeli air raid hits Gaza after rocket attack

The military says that so far this year 16 rockets have been launched at Israel from Gaza

JERUSALEM: Israel carried out an air strike on the Gaza Strip early on Monday in response to a Palestinian rocket attack from the territory, an army statement said.

"Israel Air Force aircraft targeted a Hamas terror site in the northern Gaza Strip," it said.

The rocket was fired into southern Israel late on Sunday but hit open ground, the army said and no casualties were reported on either side.

The military said that so far this year 16 rockets have been launched at Israel from Gaza.

On September 30, Israeli warplanes hit four training camps of Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, in response to a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave that was intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome air defence system.

The camps were empty at the time and nobody was injured.

Salafist militants claiming links to the Islamic State group have said they were behind recent rocket fire from Gaza, but Israel holds Hamas responsible for all such incidents.

Hamas is the militant movement that runs Gaza and has fought three wars with Israel since 2008, including a devastating conflict last summer which left some 2,200 Palestinians dead and more than 100,000 homeless.