Israel has launched airstrikes in Syria in an escalation of hostilities with Islamic Jihad, after Israeli forces killed a militant on the border with Gaza.
Israeli aircraft struck the Islamic Jihad militant group in both the Gaza Strip and Syria late Sunday, killing two fighters after the group fired a barrage of rockets at Israel.
The Israeli army said it had struck Islamic Jihad targets on the outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus, including a base"used as a hub" for the group's activities in the country.Since the start of the Syrian conflict in 2011, Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria, mainly targeting government forces as well as allied Iranian forces and Hezbollah fighters.The Israeli military said it had struck"dozens" of Islamic Jihad targets throughout Gaza.
Earlier Sunday, more than 20 rockets and mortars were launched from Gaza towards Israel, setting off warning sirens in the southern city of Ashkelon and several other locations, the army said.More than a dozen were intercepted by the Jewish state's Iron Dome missile defence system, the Israeli army said, adding there were no reports of serious injuries in Israel.
A video later emerged on social media showing a bulldozer approaching a body while a group of young, apparently unarmed men, were trying to retrieve it. READ MOREIsrael's hawkish Defence Minister Naftali Bennett has pursued a policy of retaining the bodies of militants from Gaza as bargaining chips to pressure Hamas, which has held the bodies of two Israeli soldiers since 2014.
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