By RIA Novosti
Tel Aviv : Israel resumed airstrikes Thursday against Palestinian militants in Gaza ending a week-long ceasefire in response to new rocket attacks aimed at Israeli border towns, an army spokesperson told RIA Novosti.
According to the Israeli military, Palestinian militants from the radical Islamic Jihad group fired 12 rockets and two mortar shells at southern Israel overnight. No casualties have been reported, but one of the rockets hit a house in the town of Sderot.
“We have carried out an airstrike against a rocket launcher,” the spokesperson said.
On Wednesday, the Israeli army launched a number of undercover raids in the West Bank, killing at least five militants, including two Islamic Jihad field commanders and a militant from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed Fatah wing.
Meanwhile, Islamist group Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, is reportedly trying to reach a formal cease-fire agreement with Israel through Egyptian mediators.
Ismail Haniyeh, the group’s prime minister in Gaza, said on Wednesday that Gaza leaders were holding talks with Egypt, which “is also negotiating with other sides; we are holding talks on mutual calm, which should also lead to a lifting of the economic blockade.”
Israeli officials have so far denied any involvement in talks with Palestinian militant groups.