The Israeli army says two rockets were launched from the embattled Gaza Strip into Israel amid mounting tensions as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government prepares to announce its first steps in a controversial plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank.
Sirens sounded in Israel’s Sderot district late on Friday, doctors said. It was the first rocket launch from the Gaza Strip, administered by Hamas, since the beginning of May.
There were no reports of injuries or damage in the area.
It came a day after Hamas’s armed wing warned that Israel’s annexation plans amounted to a “declaration of war.”
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As of July 1, the Netanyahu government it could begin annexing areas in the occupied West Bank and the strategically important Jordan Valley in line with the plan of the President of the United States, Donald Trump, for the Middle East.
The plan proposes establishing a demilitarized Palestinian state in a mosaic of disjointed parts of the Palestinian territories, not including the occupied. East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as the capital of a state they have always 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), called the annexation plans a “existential threat” and said that the Palestinians will respond with their own measures. The AP has already canceled all deals 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 Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Arab countries have also warned that the planned annexation could affect security in the region.
Hamas and Israel have fought three wars in recent years, with the last one in 2014 killing 2,251 Palestinians and 74 people on the Israeli side.
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SOURCE:
Al Jazeera and news agencies
