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Gaza Militants Fire Two Rockets into Israel

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired two rockets that hit Israel on Friday, a military spokeswoman said, as a truce declared by the Islamist Hamas ruling the enclave entered its second day.

The spokeswoman told Agence France Presse that the rockets, which struck southern Israel, did not cause casualties or damage.

On Thursday, 12 rockets and mortar rounds hit Israel, and another was intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-rocket defense system.

Also on Thursday, Palestinians said they had recovered the bodies of two militants from a tunnel damaged by an Israeli air strike on Gaza, raising to 10 the death toll in the territory since Monday.

The two were killed by gas fumes as they inspected the tunnel that was hit on Tuesday, the military wing of Hamas said.

Since the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades military wing declared an Egypt-brokered ceasefire with the Jewish state late on Wednesday, Israel has not launched any raids against Gaza.

The latest round of attack and counter-attack began with air strikes on Monday morning; just hours after gunmen from Sinai staged an ambush along Israel's southern border with Egypt, killing an Israeli civilian.

Israel has said that its sudden spike in Gaza operations -- three deadly air raids in just over 12 hours -- was "in no way related" to the border incident, with the military saying warplanes were targeting militants about to attack.

Since Monday, 132 rockets and mortar rounds have been fired at Israel, of which four have been brought down by Iron Dome, an army spokeswoman told AFP on Friday.

One rocket slammed into an Israeli border police post, wounding four people.

The Hamas military wing said in its statement on Wednesday that it had fired 120 rockets in a rare show of force from the Islamist group that had been observing a de facto truce.

Source: Agence France Presse


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