JERUSALEM // A truce declared by Gaza militants appeared to be largely holding on Friday with the Israeli military reporting a single rocket fired.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said it was the first to strike Israel in more than 12 hours.
It was the sixth to hit since Islamic Jihad declared on Thursday that an Egyptian-brokered truce on the Israel-Gaza border had been restored after Israeli warplanes pounded the territory in response to a barrage of rocket fire by its militants.
The truce, which was to have taken effect on Thursday, was tested when the Israeli military reported further rocket fire from Gaza hours later and launched retaliatory air strikes for a second night.
Witnesses and Palestinian security officials said the targets included facilities near Gaza City used by the military wing of Gaza’s ruling Hamas movement.
Israeli aircraft also struck a base of the hardline Popular Resistance Committees in the southern town of Rafah.
The army said five rockets hit Israeli territory on Thursday. Another two were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system.
On Wednesday, at least 60 rockets hit Israel and Israeli warplanes pounded Gaza in response, in the worst violence around the territory since an eight-day conflict between Israel and Hamas in November 2012.
Neither side reported any casualties.
The latest flare-up began on Tuesday when Islamic Jihad militants fired a mortar round at Israeli troops allegedly trying to enter southern Gaza, prompting a retaliatory air strike that killed three of them.
In revenge, Islamic Jihad’s armed wing, the Al Quds Brigades, launched a coordinated barrage of rockets at southern Israel on Wednesday that continued into the night, with the group putting the number at 130.
Israel responded by hitting 29 targets across Gaza that night, including Islamic Jihad and Hamas bases. Another seven air strikes followed on Thursday morning with seven more around midnight.
Analysts said Israel was not interested in a major confrontation, but some predicted the next flare-up would only be a matter of time.
* Agence France-Presse
