INTERNATIONAL

Hamas, which governs Gaza, has arrested two people over involvement in rocket fire from the besieged Palestinian enclave into Israel earlier this week, according to a security source.

On Thursday, the Israeli army said four rockets were fired towards Israel, one of which was intercepted while three others “exploded inside the Gaza Strip”.

Hamas’s internal security services have since detained two individuals “directly related to the firing of four rockets”, an anonymous security source in Gaza told AFP.

“The Palestinian factions have nothing to do with these rockets, which are aimed at giving the occupation [Israel] an excuse for continuing the aggression,” they added.

No armed factions claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, which Israel responded to on Friday with fighter jets targeting what the army claimed was a rocket manufacturing site in the Gaza Strip.

It was the first such bombing since Israel’s offensive against the besieged enclave in August.

Israel has maintained a crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip since 2007, which critics say amounts to collective punishment of the impoverished enclave’s two million residents.

Israel prevents the importing of materials and equipment into Gaza and has imposed strict restrictions on exports, leading to a state of “paralysis” in several sectors of Gaza’s economy.

Israeli forces killed at least 29 Palestinians in the West Bank last month, making October the deadliest month there so far this year, in what the United Nations’ humanitarian office said on Tuesday was on course to be the “deadliest year” since it started counting fatalities across the Palestinian territories in 2005.

Source: Middle East Eye