UPDATE - Israeli jets attack al-Qassam Brigades post in Gaza

ADDS ISRAELI ARMY STATEMENT

By Zeynep Tufekci

GAZA (AA) – Israeli jets struck a military post in western Gaza belonging to the military wing of Palestinian group Hamas, eyewitnesses said late Tuesday.

They said the jets bombed a post of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades but provided no information on casualties.

In a statement, the Israeli army said the attack was in response to launches of incendiary balloons into Israel, adding Hamas is responsible for what happens in Gaza.

There has been no word yet from the Palestine side on the incident.

On Monday, Israeli helicopters struck two Hamas posts in the eastern Gaza Strip, according to the military.

In a statement, the army said the attack came after a cluster of incendiary balloons was launched from the Palestinian territory into Israel.

Palestinian activists have been flying burning kites and balloons into Israel as part of ongoing anti-occupation protests along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone.

More than 250 Palestinian demonstrators have been killed by Israeli army gunfire since Palestinians began holding regular demonstrations along the zone in March of last year.

Demonstrators demand the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and villages in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.

They also demand an end to Israel’s years-long blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.