Two rockets fired from Gaza Strip towards Israel, says army

The reported rocket fire comes the day after Hamas warned that Israel's planned annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank amounted to a 'declaration of war'.

MENA

2 min read

The New Arab Staff & Agencies

26 June, 2020

The Israeli army said rockets were launched from Gaza Strip towards Israel [Anadolu/Getty]

Two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory on Friday, the army said, a day after Hamas said Israel's planned annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank would be a "declaration of war".

"Two rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip towards Israeli territory," the Israeli military said in a statement, after earlier saying "sirens sounded in the area surrounding the Gaza Strip".

Medics said the sirens sounded in the Israeli district of Sderot.

It was the first reported rocket fire from the Gaza Strip since early May.

It comes the day after Hamas, an Islamist movement, warned that Israel's planned annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank amounted to a "declaration of war".

In a televised address, Hamas's military wing said such a move would prompt a war with the Palestinians.

"The resistance considers the decision to annex the West Bank and the Jordan Valley to be a declaration of war on our people," said spokesman Abu Ubaida.

Israel's proposal to annex its settlements in the West Bank and the Jordan Valley form part of a broader US peace plan published in January.

The proposals foresee the ultimate creation of a Palestinian state on the remaining West Bank territory and the Gaza Strip.

But the plan falls far short of Palestinian aspirations, with a state on reduced territory and without east Jerusalem as a capital.

Palestinian officials cut diplomatic relations with Washington in 2017, over its pro-Israel stance, and have rejected the US peace plan.

Gaza has been under a crippling Israel blockade since 2007, when Islamist movement Hamas took control of the Palestinian enclave.

Read more: Gaza baby dies following heart surgery delay after Palestinians cut ties with Israel

Hamas and Israel have fought three wars in recent years, with the latest conflict in 2014 killing 2,251 Palestinians and 74 people on the Israeli side.

There are no official relations between the two sides. The Palestinian Authority, a separate administration based in the West Bank, cut its cooperation with Israel last month.