Armed Palestinian groups on Tuesday continued firing home-made rockets into southern Israel, one day after the Israeli army withdrew ground troops from northern Gaza Strip.
Saraya al-Quds, the military wing of the Islamic Jihad (Holy War) movement, said it had fired two missiles into Sderot city in the Western Negev. Eight other rockets were fired at Kerem Shalom and Sufa crossings in the southeast Gaza Strip along the boundaries with Israel, according to a press release by the movement.
"The shelling is part of the natural response to the occupation's crimes in the Gaza Strip and West Bank," the Islamic Jihad said.
The two-day Israeli incursion in northern Gaza Strip, in addition to previous three days of continued air strikes in the Hamas-ruled Gaza, left more than 110 Palestinians dead, at least half of them civilians. Israel says the operations were meant to curb the Palestinian rocket fire.
Meanwhile, the armed wing of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility for firing four mortar shells at Kerem Shalom crossing which Israel reopened on Tuesday to allow humanitarian aids into the impoverished enclave of Gaza.
The Palestinian factions reject a ceasefire with Israel, unless it covers West Bank alongside Gaza in addition to being mutual.
In the West Bank, the Israeli army arrested 16 Palestinians during overnight raids, Palestinian security sources said on Tuesday.
Israeli radio confirmed the reports, saying the 16 were arrested in Jenin, Nablus, Hebron, Ramallah and Bethlehem. Israel says they were wanted militants.
Source:Xinhua
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