Gaza militants launch huge mortar shell barrage on Israel who respond with airstrikes

Thick black smoke billows over Gaza City
REUTERS
Fiona Simpson29 May 2018

Gaza militants have launched the biggest mortar shell barrage on southern Israel in four years.

Militants fired 25 shells towards communities in the south of the country with some landing at a site near a nursery, Israel's army said.

Israel’s Defence Force responded with around 35 airstrikes on sites they said belonged to Gaza’s rulers Hamas and the Palestinian Jihad faction.

It appears to be the largest exchange of attacks since the 2014 Israel-Hamas war.

Smoke billows over Gaza City following the Israeli airstrike
AFP/Getty Images

No-one was hurt and the military said most were intercepted by the Iron Dome defence system.

Israeli media reported that one of the shells landed near a nursery school shortly before it opened.

A nursery is damaged on the Israeli border after mortar shells are launched by Gaza
EPA

There was no immediate comment on the shelling from Hamas, the militant Islamic group that runs the Gaza Strip.

Adva Klein, a resident of Israel’s Kibbutz Kfar Aza, said she only got about two hours of sleep because of the frequent incoming fire and the sirens warning of them.

An Israeli soldier guards an anti-missile system
EPA

Others reported machine gun fire from Gaza as well.

"It's been a really scary morning," said Adele Raemer, a resident of Kibbutz Nirim.

Smoke billows over Gaza City
AFP/Getty Images

Defence minister Avigdor Lieberman said he was convening the top military brass at his Tel Aviv headquarters to discuss the situation.

The border area has been tense in recent weeks as the Palestinians have held mass protests aimed at lifting a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas seized power in 2007.

Israeli fire has killed more than 110 Palestinians, most of them during the Hamas-led protests, which climaxed on May 14.

Plumes of smoke over Gaza City following Israeli airstrikes
AFP/Getty Images

On Sunday, Israeli shelling killed three Palestinian militants from the smaller Islamic Jihad group after the troops found a bomb planted along the border.

Islamic Jihad vowed retaliation.

On Monday, a tank fired at a Hamas position in the Gaza Strip, killing one man and wounding another, after Israeli troops came under fire on the frontier while apprehending two armed Palestinians.

Hamas has vowed to continue the border rallies.

Israel says it is defending its border as well as its communities nearby.

It accuses Hamas of trying to carry out attacks under the cover of protests.

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