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Associated Press

Israeli aircraft struck a rocket production workshop in the Gaza Strip early Thursday, the Israeli military said, hours after Palestinian militants fired a rocket toward Israel.
The exchange further raised tensions during a particularly violent period in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The Israeli military said the workshop contained chemicals and was run by the militant Hamas group, which controls Gaza.
Late Wednesday, Israeli air defences intercepted a rocket from Gaza, the army said.
There were no reports of casualties from the rocket or the air strike.
Last week, Gaza militants and Israel broke months of cross-border calm by exchanging rockets and air strikes after Israel killed 10 Palestinians, most of them militants, in a military operation in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin.
Blinken in Middle East, urges ‘calm’ as Israel-Palestinian conflict flares
The latest friction point appeared to be over Palestinian prisoners held by Israel on security charges. Israel’s National Security Minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, an ultranationalist and a senior member of the most right-wing government in Israel’s history, has pledged even tougher treatment of the prisoners in recent days.
Ben-Gvir said rockets from Gaza won’t stop him from implementing punitive policies against the prisoners. He called for an urgent Security Cabinet meeting to discuss the issue.
In Palestinian society, prisoners are generally revered as heroes, with virtually every Palestinian family having had members jailed by Israel on security charges over the course of the decades-long conflict. Several thousand are locked up at any given time, with charges ranging from stone-throwing to deadly attacks on Israelis.
In a statement Tuesday, Hamas condemned what it said were assaults by Israeli prison guards against Palestinian detainees, particularly female prisoners.

The Israeli Prison Service said the problems started Friday when it placed dozens of Palestinian prisoners in solitary confinement after they celebrated a Palestinian attack outside a synagogue in east Jerusalem in which seven people were killed.
A female Palestinian detainee tried to set fire to her cell in protest, the prison service said. In an unrelated move, the prison service removed televisions from three cells in Israel’s Ofer Prison near the city of Ramallah.
Amani Srahneh from the Palestinian Prisoners Club, a group representing former and current prisoners, said the “escalatory measures and this new Israeli government’s policy of inciting against prisoners” was creating a tense situation.
Israeli-Palestinian violence has spiked in recent days as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited with a call for calm.
Last week’s army raid in the Jenin camp was followed by the shooting attack near the Jerusalem synagogue on Friday and another Jerusalem shooting in which a 13-year-old Palestinian wounded two Israelis.
Since then, Israel has approved a series of punitive steps against the Palestinians.


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Middle East

Israeli jets strike what army says is Gaza rocket workshop

Smoke and flames rise during Israeli air strikes in Gaza City, early Thursday. Photo: Reuters 

Israeli soldiers patrol the centre of Jerusalem. Photo: AFP

Blinken in Middle East, urges ‘calm’ as Israel-Palestinian conflict flares

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivers a statement after arriving at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport near Tel Aviv on Monday. Photo: via AP

Mourners carry the body of Nassim Abu Fouda, 26, during his funeral in the West Bank on Monday. Israeli forces shot and killed the Palestinian man in Hebron, the Palestinian Health Ministry said. Photo: AP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convenes a cabinet meeting. File photo: Reuters

Israel seals home of Palestinian synagogue shooter as Netanyahu vows crackdown

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chairs the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Israel on Sunday. Photo: Haim Zach / GPO / dpa 

Mourners attend the funeral of Rafael Ben Eliyahu, a victim of a shooting attack on Friday in east Jerusalem, at Givat Shaul cemetery in Jerusalem, Israel on Sunday. Photo: AP 

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Cairo, Egypt on Sunday. Photo: Pool via AP

Palestinian gunman kills 7 near Israel synagogue in deadliest attack in years

Emergency services and security personnel work at the scene of a shooting at a synagogue in Jerusalem on Friday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Emergency personnel work at the scene of a shooting at a synagogue in Jerusalem on Friday. Photo: EPA-EFE

Palestinians celebrate in Gaza City on Friday following a shooting attack outside an east Jerusalem synagogue. Photo: AFP

Security personnel scan a synagogue after a shooting attack in Jerusalem on Friday. Photo: Reuters

Israel, Gaza fighters trade fire as tensions soar after deadly West Bank raid

A man holds a Palestinian flag during clashes with Israeli forces, near the Israel-Gaza border east of Gaza City on Thursday. Photo: Reuters 

Smoke and flames rise during Israeli air strikes in Gaza City. Photo: Reuters

Mourners carry the bodies of eight Palestinians during a joint funeral in the West Bank city of Jenin. Photo: AP

A two-storey building in Jenin, apparently the Israeli operation’s target, was a charred wreck. Photo: AP

Palestinians throw stones amid clashes with Israeli troops in Jenin, West Bank. Photo: EPA-EFE

Why China’s strong words for Israel on Palestine issue are unlikely to be backed up with action

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang has urged Israel to stop provocations that worsen the Palestinian issue. Photo: AFP 

Itamar Ben-Gvir visits Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount. Photo: AFP

President Xi Jinping welcomes Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu to Beijing in March 2017. Photo: CNS

News

World

Israeli forces attacked targets in the Gaza Strip in response to a rocket launch
Exchange of fire underlined renewed tensions between Israel and the Palestinians


Israeli aircraft struck a rocket production workshop in the Gaza Strip, hours after Palestinian militants fired a rocket toward Israel.


Israel

Islamic militancy

Israeli jets strike what army says is Gaza rocket workshop

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Israeli forces attacked targets in the Gaza Strip in response to a rocket launch Exchange of fire underlined renewed tensions between Israel and the Palestinians

Israeli forces attacked targets in the Gaza Strip in response to a rocket launch

Exchange of fire underlined renewed tensions between Israel and the Palestinians