Rockets fired from Gaza land off central Israel’s coast

A picture taken on January 24, 2020 shows buildings overlooking the beachfront of the coastal Isaeli city of Tel Aviv. (File/AFP)

• It was not immediately clear whether the rockets were meant to hit Israel
• Apart from a single incident in September, there has been no cross-border rocket fire since a cease-fire ended an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in May

JERUSALEM: Rockets fired from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Saturday landed in the Mediterranean Sea off central Israel, the Israeli military said.
It was not immediately clear whether the rockets were meant to hit Israel, but Gaza-based militant groups often test-fire missiles toward the sea. There were no reports of casualties.
Apart from a single incident in September, there has been no cross-border rocket fire since a cease-fire ended an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas in May.
In a statement, the Israeli army said the rockets fell off the coast of the Tel Aviv Metropolitan Area. “According to protocol, no sirens were sounded and no interception took place,” it added.
Witnesses in Gaza said they woke up to the sound of outgoing missiles around 7 a.m. and pictures circulated on social media showed whiffs of white smoke from the launching area.
The cease-fire, brokered by Egypt and other mediators, has been fragile. The militant Hamas group says Israel did not take serious steps to ease the blockade it imposed on Gaza with Egypt’s help when the Islamic movement seized control of the coastal enclave in 2007.
Tension are also high as other groups like the smaller but more hard-line Islamic Jihad threaten military escalation if Israel doesn’t end the administrative detention of a Palestinian prisoner who has been on a hunger strike for over 130 days.
On Wednesday, Palestinian militants in Gaza shot and lightly wounded an Israeli civilian near the security fence and Israel responded with tank fire targeting multiple Hamas sites in the first exchange of fire in months.