Gaza residents cheer as the terror group launches at least four rockets into the Mediterranean.
Hamas terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired rockets into the sea on Monday after repeated exchanges of fire with Israel in recent days, Gaza security sources and eyewitnesses said.
At least eight rockets were seen in the sky, heading toward the Mediterranean Sea, said AFP journalists in the coastal strip.
The Gaza Strip’s interior ministry called the rocket launches “an act of resistance”.
The rockets were a “message” to Israel to let it know that terrorist groups in Gaza will not “remain silent” in the face of an Israeli blockade and “aggression”, a source close to Hamas told AFP.
The source noted that Monday’s rocket fire coincided with the recent launch of incendiary balloons into Israel.
In the past week, such balloons have flown three times from Gaza into Israel, each time triggering retaliatory strikes against Hamas positions.
The latest came Sunday night, after which the Israeli military announced that one of its aircraft had struck at a Hamas observation post in northern Gaza.
Despite a truce last year, backed by the UN, Egypt and Qatar, the two sides clash sporadically with rockets, mortar fire or incendiary balloons from Gaza and retaliatory strikes by Israel.
Palestinian Arab analysts say fire from Gaza is often aimed at pressuring Israel to give the green light for the transfer of Qatari financial aid into the strip.
Earlier Sunday, amid rising tensions along the border, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz convened a situational assessment with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi. The two decided not to tolerate the continued campaign of cross-border terrorism via incendiary and bomb-laden balloons.
(Arutz 7 & JNS).