A missile was launched from Ashkelon, Israel, to intercept a rocket from Gaza strip in 2019 (Photo: AFP/ VNA)

The army said in a statement that an Israel Defense Forces combat helicopter attacked infrastructure used for underground activity by the Hamas organization in the northern Gaza Strip. The attack was in response to explosive balloons sent from the Gaza Strip into Israeli territory, it said.

A security news source in Palestine confirmed the airstrike had hit a base belonging to Hamas’s military forces, with no casualties reported.

Israeli forces on Wednesday night struck multiple Hamas targets in Gaza in retaliation for 4 rockets fired from Gaza into Israel. This was the first rocket attack since the US’s airstrike on Baghdad International Airport earlier this month that killed top Iranian General Qasem Soleimani. Hamas condemned the US’s action, but did not call for retaliation.