JERUSALEM – The Israeli military on Saturday sealed off the West Bank and Gaza Strip in response to Palestinian rocket attacks.
The army said 21 rockets fired from Gaza fell in Israel today, injuring five Israelis.
Israel earlier responded with airstrikes on what the army called Hamas weapons facilities. The attacks were the first airstrikes in Gaza since Israel withdrew from the coastal strip last week after 38 years of occupation.
Hamas claimed responsibility for many of the rockets, blaming Israel for a blast that killed 15 people on Friday at a rally in the northern Gaza refugee camp of Jebaliya.
The explosion took place at nightfall during a Hamas procession through the densely populated camp. Masked fighters marched or rode in a convoy of vehicles that wound through the camp’s narrow streets.
At least two children were believed to be among the dead.
Witnesses said the blast originated in a truck that appeared to have been carrying homemade Kassam rockets. The vehicle was left a twisted, charred mass of metal.
Israeli denied involvement in that blast, and Palestinian security forces said it was caused by the militants’ mishandling of explosives.
The Hamas rally was timed to take place before a ban takes effect this evening on the parading of weapons in public, to which all the militant factions had agreed.
The Israeli army said the airstrikes targeted three Hamas weapons facilities: a weapons warehouse in Jebaliya and a weapons factory and warehouse in Gaza City.
One missile landed in a field near an abandoned workshop where militants used to make homemade rockets in Gaza City, according to security officials. The owner of the workshop, Mahed Abu Assi, 42, denied that it was used to produce weapons.
The second airstrike hit a garage outside the house of a Hamas fighter. The third landed near the house of an Islamic Jihad militant in Gaza City.
Before leaving Gaza last week, Israeli officials said they would deal harshly with any attacks originating from the volatile coastal strip. Militants had fired a total of 30 homemade rockets from Gaza into Israel since Friday afternoon.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the first wave, saying they were in retaliation for an Israeli raid near the West Bank town of Tulkarem that killed three Islamic Jihad militants.
Hamas spokesman Mushir al Masri said the group would retaliate for the airstrikes.
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