UN school in Gaza damaged in Israeli strike over fire balloons
Israel says it will stop shipments of fuel into Gaza in response to Palestinians in the enclave launching incendiary balloons that have torched tracts of farmland on the Israeli frontier.
Overnight, Israeli warplanes and tanks struck what the military said were Hamas facilities, calling it a response to the balloons. Israel had earlier shut down Gaza's main commercial crossing and reduced the area where it permits Palestinians to fish.
In Gaza City, a school run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) was damaged by one of the strikes, Gaza's interior ministry said.
The school was empty at the time and there were no reports of casualties. "Apparently the device did not explode," an UNRWA statement said.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said the report was being checked.
Palestinians in Gaza have launched dozens of helium balloons laden with incendiary material in recent days to pressure Israel to ease its blockade of the territory.
Fuel shipments were stopped "in light of the continued launching of incendiary balloons from the Strip toward (Israel) and of the undermining of security stability," Israel's ministry for military affairs said in a written statement.
Hamas called the measure a grave act of aggression that would deepen Gaza's economic hardship.
The Israeli regime has reduced electricity supplies to the besieged Gaza Strip over the past years.
(Source: Reuters)
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