Israel pounds Gaza after blast wounds soldiers

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Palestinian sources said at least two people were killed when the Israeli military engaged in retaliatory strikes on 18 Hamas targets in Gaza on Sunday.

An Israeli military spokesperson said in a statement that the strikes were made in retaliation to an explosive device that detonated near the fence between Israel and the Palestinian enclave as a military patrol arrived to remove a "suspicious flag."

Four soldiers were wounded.

The strikes carried out on Saturday night and early on Sunday morning,

At least two Palestinian youths were killed in the large-scale attacks, according to the official Palestinian news agency of WAFA.

Palestinians check the site of an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on February 18, 2018. /VCG Photo

The assault included airstrikes on a tunnel built by Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist group that runs Gaza, in the Zaytun neighborhood in Gaza city; a military compound near Deir el Balah in the central Gaza Strip; and a military compound in the area of Khan Yunis in the southern Strip. Additionally, a tank targeted two observation posts, the military said.

"The IDF (Israel Defense Forces) views with great severity the incident," the spokesperson said.

"The Hamas terror organization is accountable for this incident and its consequences, as well as everything happening in and from the Gaza Strip, above and below ground," the spokesperson added.

The Islamic Hamas movement on later Sunday blamed both the US and the Israeli administrations for Gaza's escalating humanitarian crisis.

An injured Palestinian man arrives to receive treatment at a hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on late February 17, 2018. /VCG Photo‍

It accused Israel of continuing the policy of the US administration that bears responsibility for "the tragedies that have afflicted the Palestinian people since occupying the Palestinian lands."

The Gaza Strip has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in living standards as well as unprecedented unemployment and poverty.

Israel claims that Hamas uses Gaza underground tunnels to stockpile weapons and infiltrate into the occupied lands.

Source(s): Xinhua News Agency