Gaza conflict: Israel launches strikes after rocket fire

Mid-East crisis

Palestinian militants from Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades inside a tunnel underneath Gaza (18 August 2014)

"Terror targets" were hit in Gaza after rockets were fired towards the towns of Beersheba and Netivot, officials said.
The violence came with seven hours remaining of the ceasefire extension agreed to allow both sides to negotiate a deal to end weeks of fighting.
More than 2,080 people, most of them Palestinians, have died since 8 July.
'No progress'
Israeli officials said the first three rockets landed in open fields near Beersheba, causing no injuries. Two were later intercepted over Netivot.
"This rocket attack was a grave and direct violation of the ceasefire," said Mark Regev, a spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Witnesses in Gaza reported several Israeli air strikes, from Beit Lahiya in the north to Rafah in the south. Hospital officials told the Reuters news agency that two children were wounded.
Damaged buildings in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun (18 August 2014)UN officials say nearly 17.000 housing units in the Gaza Strip were destroyed in the recent fighting
Palestinian militants from Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades inside a tunnel underneath Gaza (18 August 2014)Members of Hamas' military wing showed journalists a tunnel underneath Gaza on Monday
Israeli soldiers near the Gaza frontier (19 August 2014)Israel had warned that its forces were prepared to retaliate if Gaza militants resumed rocket fire
Palestinians leaving Beit Hanoun for the night on 18 August 2014Thousand of civilians in Gaza have reportedly begun seeking refuge from the latest violence
There was no immediate claim of responsibility from any of the Palestinian factions in Gaza, which is dominated by Hamas.
Sami Abu Zuhri, a spokesman for the Islamist movement, told the BBC that it "had no idea or information about the firing of any rockets".
However, another Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, had earlier warned: "If [Prime Minister Benjamin]Netanyahu doesn't understand... the language of politics in Cairo, we know how to make him understand."
The Israeli delegation has reportedly been instructed to leave the indirect talks and return home.
"The Cairo process was based on the premise of a total ceasefire," one Israeli official said.

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