Israel should withdraw forces from Gaza immediately: Hamas

Al-Qassam Brigade, the Islamic Hamas movement's armed wing, warned on Wednesday that Israel should get its military forces out of the Gaza Strip immediately.

The group said that "the enemy (Israel) should stop creating excuses and get its forces out of the Gaza Strip immediately", Xinhua reported.

The leaflet accused Israel of violating an Egypt-brokered ceasefire reached between the group and Israel, which ended a 50-day large-scale military offensive waged on the coastal enclave during the summer of 2014.

The Hamas armed wing said on Tuesday morning, an engineering unit of the Israeli army, backed by armoured vehicles, has crossed the borderline area between Gaza and Israel and advanced about 300 metres into eastern Gaza Strip.

 

"They caused severe damages to the properties of the residents there," said the group's leaflet.

On Wednesday evening, Israeli war jets struck with two air-to-ground missiles the area of the inoperative Gaza Airport east of Rafah town in southern Gaza Strip with no injury reported, according to witnesses and security officials.

The airstrike came after anonymous Gaza militants fired five mortar shells on an Israeli army base, which also opened fire at an Israeli army bulldozer that was digging into the ground underneath the borderline area between eastern Gaza city and Israel.