MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 14th August, 2020) The Israeli air force and tanks stroke facilities of the Hamas Islamist movement in the Gaza Strip after several explosive balloons had been launched from the Palestinian enclave, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said on Friday.
Israel has faced a series of balloon attacks from the Gaza Strip this week and responded with airstrikes several times in previous days. On Tuesday, Israel closed the Kerem Shalom checkpoint on the border with the enclave, allowing only deliveries of humanitarian cargo and fuel through it.
"In response to a series of explosive balloons launched from Gaza into Israel over the last week, we just struck a Hamas aerial defense post, underground infrastructure, & observation posts in Gaza," the IDF wrote on its Twitter page.
Further details of the incident remain unknown.
Hamas, a Palestinian Sunni militant organization in control of the Gaza Strip, has been locked in a protracted on-and-off conflict with Israel, which still refuses to recognize Palestine as an independent political and diplomatic entity. Israel holds Hamas responsible for any attack coming from the Gaza Strip.
