5 Palestinians hurt in Israeli raid on Gaza

Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip overnight wounded a woman and four children, Palestinian medical sources said on Thursday, with Israel saying it had struck in retaliation for rocket fire. The five civilians were hit by shrapnel but their wounds were not life-threatening, the sources said. Israel's army confirmed the strikes, saying they were in response to rockets fired from Gaza on Wednesday night, five of which were intercepted by its Iron Dome missile defence system. "Tonight, Iron Dome once more proved its efficiency in protecting the civilians of Israel," military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner said in a statement. The retaliatory air strikes targeted "an underground rocket-launcher, a weapon storage facility and a weapon manufacturing site, all in the northern Gaza Strip. Direct hits were confirmed," he said. Palestinian security officials said one of the strikes targeted a training camp of the Ezzedine al-Qaddam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamist Hamas movement that has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007. In a previous raid on Monday, jets retaliated to rockets fired on southern Israel following the burial of former prime minister Ariel Sharon at his ranch near the border with Gaza. Source: AFP