Israel has launched air strikes north of Gaza City after rockets were fired from the besieged Palestinian enclave following an Israeli raid on the West Bank city of Nablus that killed 11 Palestinians.
No Palestinian group has claimed responsibility for the rockets fired hours earlier from the Gaza Strip, which triggered sirens in the Israeli cities of Sderot and Ashkelon.
Sara Khairat, reporting from West Jerusalem for Al Jazeera, says Israel has raised security levels in the occupied areas and especially in East Jerusalem.
“They are expecting that there will be retaliatory attacks and that’s why they’re stepping up security,” Khairat said.
The Israeli military said its air defence system intercepted five of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, while a sixth fell in an uninhabited area.
Tel Aviv responded by launching several strikes on the besieged enclave.
The fighting comes less than two months after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new hard-line government took office.
