GAZA CITY
Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, the military arm of Palestinian resistance group Hamas, said Wednesday it fired a barrage of homemade rockets at Tel Aviv and an Israeli military airbase as tensions continue to grip the region.
In a press release, the brigades said that its fighters fired four homemade M75 rockets at Tel Aviv. It did not say, however, whether they caused any damage.
The Israeli army radio confirmed that the Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted five rockets over Tel Aviv.
The brigades also said it fired two M75 rockets at Israel's Nevatim Airbase, located 70 kilometers away from Gaza.
On Tuesday, the brigades said that it had fired volleys of rockets on several Israeli cities, including Jerusalem, Haifa, Tel Aviv and Ashdod.
The Israeli army, for its part, confirmed that rockets fired from the Gaza Strip had targeted seven Israeli cities.
It said one rocket hit the northern city of Hadera, nearly 100km from Gaza; three West Jerusalem; three Kfar Saba and 17 Ashdod.
At least 24 Palestinians were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the coastal enclave since Israel announced the launch of a military offensive – dubbed "Operation Protective Edge" – with the stated aim of staunching rocket fire from Gaza.
The death toll does not include four Palestinians killed by Israeli troops during a daring attack on the Israeli Zakim naval base late on Tuesday.
The Israeli army said Tuesday that its air and naval forces had struck scores of sites across the Gaza Strip overnight, while ground troops were being amassed on the strip's borders in advance of a possible ground incursion.
The latest escalations come amid heightened tension over the killing of three teenage Jewish settlers in the West Bank last month and the subsequent murder of a 16-year-old Palestinian boy by Jewish settlers.
By Mustafa Haboosh
