Israel launches new air raid on Hamas in Gaza

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Israel said Thursday it launched an overnight air raid on a Hamas facility in Gaza after gunfire from the territory targeted its soldiers and damaged a building.

"The Israeli army struck targets belonging to Hamas in the northern Gaza Strip, including terrorist infrastructure and weapons-making facilities," the military said in a statement.

Palestinian security sources confirmed the target was a Hamas base, saying there were no immediate reports of injuries.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said one man sustained moderate injuries from shrapnel, but did not confirm whether he was inside a targeted site or nearby, according to the National, a news website in the Middle East.

Nov. 29, 2017: Smoke billows in Gaza City after Israel's military targeted Hamas posts in Gaza in retaliation for mortar rounds fired from the Palestinian enclave. /AFP Photo

On Wednesday, Israeli tanks fired at three Hamas positions after shots from Gaza were fired at Israeli soldiers and bullets from a heavy machine gun hit a house in the town of Sderot.

The exchanges of fire came after weeks of mass protests and clashes on the Gaza border, which peaked on Monday, the bloodiest single day for Palestinians since 2014, when some 60 Palestinians were killed and more than 2000 injured by Israeli forces.

Israeli troops shot dead dozens of Palestinian protesters on the Gaza border on Monday when the high-profile opening of the US embassy to Israel in Jerusalem by the Trump administration raised tensions to boiling point after weeks of demonstrations.

The Cairo-based Arab League (AL) strongly condemned in a statement on Tuesday the Israeli "massacres" against unarmed Palestinian protesters, describing the Israeli actions as rising to the level of "war crimes".

"The fall of tens of Palestinian martyrs in the marches of heroism and freedom should move the world's conscience," AL Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit said in the statement. He called on the international community to "provide protection for the Palestinian people who have chosen the peaceful path of struggle but met by brutality, violence and murder".

(Front photo: Smoke rises following an Israeli air strike in Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, May 5, 2016. /AFP Photo)

(With inputs from AFP)