Israel’s air force pounded terror targets in the Gaza Strip yesterday after Hamas and Islamic Jihad hit southern Israel with more than 50 rockets and mortar shells.
Five people were wounded in the Israeli airstrike, the second in 24 hours, Hamas said.
The violence was the worst in five months along the explosive Gaza-Israel border and came as Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney called for a greater US effort in the Mideast peace process.
The latest exchange came after Israel targeted two militants in an airstrike on Sunday night, killing one and wounding the other. The men were suspected members of an al Qaeda-inspired terror group, Israeli officials said.
Hamas, which rules Gaza, and the smaller terror group Islamic Jihad responded with a rocket barrage yesterday morning that left property damage but no casualties.
“We have the right to defend ourselves,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said.
The exchange comes in the wake of Israel shooting down a foreign drone over its territory on Saturday.
Israeli officials would not say where the drone came from, although suspicion fell on the Lebanese group Hezbollah, a Hamas ally. The drone was believed to have been made in Iran.
Israeli officials said US-made Patriot anti-missile batteries were deployed yesterday in the Carmel region of northern Israel as a precaution against another drone incursion.