Israeli Air Force F-16s flying in formation. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

JNS.org – The Israeli Air Force launched two strikes on Hamas terror targets in the Gaza Strip Tuesday, causing significant damage, the IDF said. The airstrikes came in response to a rocket fired from Gaza that landed near the southern Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon.

No Palestinian terror group has claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, but the IDF reiterated its policy that Hamas, which controls Gaza, is responsible for all rocket fire emanating from the territory.

The emergency director at Gaza’s Shifa hospital, Ayman Sahbani, said four Palestinians were injured in the airstrike.

“This is crossing a dangerous line that Israel will bear the consequences of,” Hamas said in a statement Wednesday. “It is forbidden for Gaza to remain an experimental ground for the Israeli occupation’s weapons.”

Despite the tensions over Jerusalem’s Temple Mount this summer, there have been only a few instances of rocket fire from Gaza landing in Israel. Last month, a rocket from Gaza landed in an open area in the Sha’ar Hanegev Regional Council.