*UPDATES WITH ISRAELI AIRSTRIKES
By Kaamil Ahmed
JERUSALEM (AA) - Israeli forces struck a handful of Hamas sites in the blockaded Gaza Strip on Monday after a missile was fired into Israel from the coastal enclave earlier the same day, according to the Israeli military.
Air-raid sirens were sounded in Israel’s Ashkelon region north of Gaza following Monday morning’s reported missile launch, the army said in a statement, adding that the projectile had fallen to earth in an open area without causing any injuries or damage.
In ostensible retaliation for the missile launch, Israeli jets struck three targets in northern Gaza, the military said, after an Israeli tank shelled another site hours earlier.
In a statement, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, said a local man had been injured near the site of one of the Israeli airstrikes.
Although rockets are sporadically fired from Gaza by smaller Palestinian resistance groups, Israel holds Hamas -- which has governed the strip since 2007 -- responsible for such actions, frequently responding by striking sites associated with the group.