Rockets are fired from Gaza toward Israel, May 5, 2019. Photo: Reuters / Suhaib Salem.

As tensions continue to rise on the Israel-Gaza Strip border, the coastal enclave’s ruling terrorist group, Hamas, fired a barrage of rockets into the Mediterranean Sea in an apparent “warning” to Israel.

Recent days have seen a number of incendiary and explosive balloon attacks and a shooting incident at the border fence in which construction workers and IDF soldiers were fired on.

Israel has retaliated against Hamas targets in Gaza in each case, and on Sunday Defense Minister Benny Gantz and IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kochavi met and reportedly decided that they would retaliate for further attacks with greater force, even at the risk of war.

The Israeli news site N12 reported that, against this backdrop, Hamas on Monday fired five to seven rockets into the sea as a signal to Israel.

The rockets were apparently self-produced by Hamas, which has had difficulty smuggling rockets into Gaza because of the Israeli blockade of the enclave and Egypt’s shutdown of the tunnel infrastructure on the Sinai border.

Senior Hamas official and co-founder Mahmoud al-Zahar was quoted as saying, “Any aggression by the Israeli army toward Gaza will lead to a high risk of unintended consequences.”

“Israel must immediately lift the siege and meet the humanitarian needs of the residents of the Gaza Strip,” he added.

Regarding the balloon attacks, al-Zahar said, “The residents of the Gaza Strip will express their feelings the way they see fit.”