Turkey: 5 detained for trying to enter Israeli consulate

At least four Palestinians were injured when Israel fired missiles into the Gaza Strip on Sunday in retaliation to a rocket, allegedly fired from the Palestinian enclave, that crashed into the southern Israeli city of Sderot.

“The attacks, which caused injuries to innocent Palestinian civilians, are not acceptable regardless of their grounds”, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement, Turkey’s Anadolu Agency reported Monday.

Turkey on Monday condemned what it said were “disproportionate” Israeli airstrikes in the Gaza Strip, insisting that a recent reconciliation pact doesn’t preclude it from speaking out against the country’s actions.

Earlier on Sunday, Hamas held an anti-Israel military parade through the streets of Rafah in southern Gaza. The Kassam rocket landed between two houses and there were no casualties although some residents of Sderot panicked.

Israel said aircraft and tanks hit targets belonging to Hamas militants in response.

Under the terms of the deal, both sides agreed individual Israeli citizens or those acting on behalf of the Israeli government would not be held liable – either criminally or financially – for the raid, Anadolu said.

Security sources in the territory said several targets in northern Gaza were hit by Israeli fire, and that a reservoir in the city of Beit Hanun was destroyed. “Witnesses said a base of Hamas”;s military wing the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, in nearby Beit Lahya, was also hit.

Israel says the Gaza blockade is needed to curb arms smuggling by Hamas, an Islamist group that last fought a war with Israel in 2014.

No group claimed responsibility for the rocket that was sacked into the southern Israeli city of Sderot. Meanwhile, Israel clarified that it is not interested in an escalation.

The latest conflict in the strip took place in the summer of 2014, claiming the lives of more than 2,200 Palestinians and over 70 Israelis, and turning thousands of Palestinians homeless.