© ReutersA general view shows ruins of houses that witnesses said were destroyed by Israeli shelling during a 50-day war in the 2014 summer. Israel has again bombed Gaza.
Israel's military confirmed early Wednesday it had conducted at least four overnight airstrikes on Gaza, the Palestinian enclave they brutally pounded last year for 51 days, killing over 2,500 people. The strikes hit sites belonging to Hamas, the political body that administers Gaza. No injuries have been reported.
An Israeli military spokesperson claimed the strikes were in response to a rocket fired from Gaza late Tuesday. It's unclear who launched the rocket; rogue militant groups within Gaza boast a history of firing rockets without approval from Hamas. In the past, Hamas has condemned rogue rocket attacks,
Although Israeli army spokesperson Peter Lerner told Reuters that Tel Aviv continues to hold Hamas responsible for all rocket attacks. Tuesday's rocket was intercepted by Israel's missile defense system and the military says no one was injured.
The latest overnight strikes come after weeks of tensions between Israelis and Palestinians, with intermittent violence persisting in Jerusalem.
Hamas and Israel have been in a fragile cease-fire, which was put in place after the end of the Israeli 50-day war on Gaza in July 2014. The conflict left over 2,500 Gazans dead; an overwhelming majority were civilians. It caused damage to over 10,000 buildings.On the Israeli side, 66 soldiers and six civilians were killed.
Gaza has struggled to recover from the fighting, which displaced over 273,000 residents and left the enclave in ruins. An estimated 5,000 homes were damaged, and public infrastructure was left in ruins by Israeli bombing. The damages were said to be well over US$5 billion.
Comment: Ever the bully, Israel is getting its blows in while the world is distracted by the Syrian crisis.