Israel’s army said in a statement that 20 “projectiles” had been fired from the Palestinian enclave on Monday, 18 of them intercepted by its air defense systems.
On Sunday, in response to Israel’s killing of a militant along the border, Islamic Jihad more than 20 rockets were launched from Gaza into Israel.
Israel’s military said it responded to the rockets with airstrikes targeting “terror sites” throughout Gaza as well as near the Syrian capital.
The Damascus strike killed two Islamic Jihad fighters and four other Iran-backed militants, according to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor.
Since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria, mainly targeting government troops as well as allied Iranian forces and the Tehran-backed Lebanese group Hezbollah.
Israel’s hawkish Defense Minister Naftali Bennett has pursued a policy of retaining the bodies of militants from Gaza as bargaining chips to pressure Hamas, which has held those of two Israeli soldiers since 2014.
Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh, speaking before a weekly cabinet meeting “(Israel’s) occupation kills Palestinians in cold blood and with images that should shame humanity, and in violation of international law which Israel breaches day and night,” he said.
Israel rarely confirms responsibility for such strikes, but did so on Sunday, describing the target as a base “used as a hub” for Islamic Jihad activities in Syria.
