Gaza rocket hits Israel after deadly clashes

Jerusalem: Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip launched a rocket at Israel early Saturday, the army said, just hours after six Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire during border clashes.
A statement from the army said ‘a rocket was launched at southern Israel’ and was believed to have ‘landed in an open area in the Eshkol Regional Council. No injuries have been reported.’
On Friday, six Palestinians who were part of a large group of rioters that approached the Gaza border with Israel were shot and killed by IDF soldiers.
Some 200 Palestinians approached the Gaza-Israel border fence from the Strip, burning tires and throwing rocks. They ignored calls by soldiers to stop, entering a 100-meter perimeter area that is a closed military zone, and getting to within 50 meters of the fence, an army spokeswoman said.
The demonstration was called in solidarity with Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem and followed a spate of attacks by Palestinians against Israelis and reprisals by Jews against Arabs.
It wasn’t immediately clear who fired the rockets from the coastal territory. Last Sunday the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, a Salafist organization affiliated with Islamic State, claimed responsibility for firing two rockets at Israel.
In recent months, the group has attempted to challenge Hamas’s rule in the Strip.
But amid a wave of terror attacks that has hit Israel, Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas’ deputy political bureau chief in Gaza, said on Friday that the ‘Al-Aksa intifada has been revived and we intend to join.’
In his Friday sermon, the Hamas leader said that ‘Jews are trying to take over the Aksa mosque but they will not succeed.’
‘We will liberate al-Aksa and we as Gazans intend to join’ the current upheaval, Haniyeh declared.
‘We call for escalating and deepening the intifada... We are proud of you, the heroes of knives,’ he added.