DHAKA: Israeli fighter jets have struck two national security bases and an empty field in the Gaza Strip, after rockets were earlier fired into southern Israel from the besieged territory.

One air strike targeted a national security base east of the Jabalia refugee camp, in the north of the strip, moderately injuring one Palestinian, medical sources said on Saturday.

Another air strike hit a base east of Gaza City, in the Zeitoun neighborhood, while a third hit an empty field in the north of the Gaza Strip in Beit Hanoun.

Earlier on Friday, a rocket fired from the strip struck a parked bus in the town of Sderot without causing casualties, Israeli police said.

An Iron Dome anti-rocket battery also shot down a rocket over the southern city of Ashkelon.

A group called the Brigade of Omar Hadidi, which is believed to be affiliated to the Islamic State (IS) of Iraq and Syria, claimed responsibility on Twitter for firing the grad rocket at Askelon.

The incidents came as violence between Palestinian protesters and Israeli security forces spread beyond the walls of Jerusalem’s old city on Friday, with at least eight Palestinians shot in clashes in the occupied West Bank and Israeli policemen injured by firebombs in a restive part of the city.

Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, had called for a ‘day of rage’ over tensions at the city’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound.

The new wave of violence started on September 13 when Israeli police stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound to arrest what they called Palestinian ‘stone throwers’, reports Al Jazeera.

BDST: 1415 HRS, SEPT 19, 2015
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