Israel bombs Hamas sites in Gaza over fire balloons: military

Palestinians say the balloons aim to pressure Israel to ease restrictions on besieged territory under Israeli blockade.

Israeli warplanes bombed Hamas sites in Gaza in response to incendiary balloons launched from the Palestinian enclave that caused brush fires in southern Israel, its military said. There were no immediate reports of casualties in the air attacks that targeted what, the military said early on Tuesday, was a weapons production facility and a rocket launch site belonging to Hamas, the group that rules Gaza. In a statement, the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) confirmed that fighter jets attacked “a Hamas weapons manufacturing site in Khan Younis as well as terror tunnel entrance in Jabalya”.