Israel, Gaza fighters trade missiles after deadly West Bank raid

GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Israel and Palestinian fighters in the Gaza Strip traded missile fire on Friday, raising fears of a further escalation after one the deadliest army raids in the occupied West Bank in years.

Israel said in response to the missiles, it “targeted an underground rocket manufacturing site” belonging to Hamas and a north Gaza military base used by the Palestinian militant group. There were no reported casualties on either side and most of the rockets fired from the coastal Palestinian enclave were intercepted by Israel´s air defence system.

Islamic Jihad said the rockets were “part of a message” to show that “Palestinian blood is not cheap”. Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad had vowed to respond to Israel´s raid Thursday in the West Bank.

Nine people were killed by Israeli forces during the raid on the crowded Jenin refugee camp, where gunshots rang through the streets and smoke billowed from burning barricades. Another Palestinian was killed on Thursday by Israeli fire in separate West Bank unrest near Ramallah.

In Jenin, calm returned on Friday, with businesses across the city shuttered as part of a general strike. The military said Israeli forces came under fire during a “counterterrorism operation to apprehend an Islamic Jihad terror squad” and shot several enemy combatants. Since its records began in 2005, the United Nations has never logged such a high death toll in a single operation in the West Bank.