Israeli warplanes bomb two sites in Gaza Strip
Flames and smoke rise during Israeli airstrikes on central Gaza Strip, April 21, 2022. (AFP Photo)


Israeli warplanes struck two sites in the Gaza Strip early Thursday belonging to the military wing of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades.

Warplanes targeted two sites in central and southern Gaza, Anadolu Agency (AA) reported.

No casualties or injuries have been reported by the Palestinian Health Ministry.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in a Twitter post said the airstrikes were carried out in response to a rocket attack on Israel’s southern city of Sderot.

"We struck an underground complex in Gaza used to produce rocket engines," it added.

It noted that the strikes dealt a blow to rocket manufacturing capabilities in Gaza.

Earlier, the IDF said that sirens sounded for the second time in the south of Israel as its Iron Dome air defense system intercepted four rockets fired from Gaza.

Tension has mounted across the Palestinian territories since last week when Israeli forces raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque courtyards and attacked worshippers, injuring hundreds.

Daily settler incursions into the flashpoint site to celebrate the Passover holiday have further inflamed the situation.

Hundreds of Israeli settlers have stormed the flashpoint compound since Sunday under heavy police protection to celebrate the week-long Jewish Passover holiday. The Israeli police, meanwhile, imposed restrictions on the entry of Palestinian youths to Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform the dawn prayer.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett Wednesday barred far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir from entering Muslim areas of Jerusalem's Old City and holding a rally.

Ben Gvir had announced he would take part in a rally on Wednesday evening, saying he would march through the Damascus Gate, the main entrance to the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem's Old City.

Bennett accepted the recommendation of security chiefs to prevent Ben Gvir from entering the Damascus Gate. "I have no intention of allowing petty politics to endanger human lives," Bennett said in a statement.

"I will not allow a political provocation by Ben Gvir to endanger IDF (Israeli army) soldiers and Israeli police officers, and render their already heavy task even heavier."

Israeli police had earlier banned the rally from taking place on the proposed route.

Right-winger Bennett, a key figure in Israel's settlement movement, leads a fragile coalition government. Earlier this month, Bennett's coalition lost its one-seat majority of 61 in the 120-seat Knesset, Israel's parliament, after a member left in a dispute over the use of leavened bread products in hospitals during Passover. Then on Sunday, the Raam party, drawn from the country's Arab-Israeli minority and with four members of the Knesset, suspended its support for the coalition following violence at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.