Two rockets fired from Gaza Strip towards Israel: Army

The Israeli military says two rockets have been fired from the besieged Gaza Strip towards Israel amid rising tensions as the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu prepares to announce its first steps in a controversial plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.

Sirens sounded in the Israeli district of Sderot late on Friday, medics said. It was the first reported rocket fire from the Gaza Strip, which is administered by Hamas, since early May

There were no reports of injuries or damage in the area.

It came a day after the armed wing of Hamas warned Israel’s annexation plans amounted to a “declaration of war”.

Beginning as soon as July 1, Netanyahu’s government could begin annexing areas in the occupied West Bank and the strategically important Jordan Valley in line with United States President Donald Trump’s plan for the Middle East.

The plan proposes to establish a demilitarised Palestinian state on a patchwork of disjointed parts of the Palestinian territories, not including occupied East Jerusalem, which Palestinians claim as the capital of a state they have long sought.

The proposal has been rejected in its entirety by the Palestinians and widely condemned by the international community. 

Mohammad Shtayyeh, prime minister of the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA), has called the annexation plans an “existential threat” and said the Palestinians will respond with their own measures. The PA has already cancelled all agreements with Israel and the US.

Meanwhile, the United Nations and the European Union say the plans threaten the possibility of reaching a peace agreement in the long-running Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Arab countries have also warned the planned annexation could affect security in the region.

Hamas and Israel have fought three wars in recent years, with the latest in 2014 killing 2,251 Palestinians and 74 people on the Israeli side.