Israel strikes Gaza Hamas sites after rocket attacks

Tel Aviv: Israel says it has targeted a number of sites belonging to militant group Hamas in retaliation for rocket strikes, the BBC News reported on Saturday.The Israeli military says it hit a weapons manufacturing site and an ammunition store early on Saturday. Three rockets were fired from Gaza to Israel in the past day, with one hitting the southern city of Sderot.

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have increased since US President Donald Trump recognised Jerusalem as Israel's capital.Wednesday's decision reversed decades of US neutrality on the matter.Israel has always regarded Jerusalem as its capital, while the Palestinians claim East Jerusalem -- occupied by Israel in the 1967 war -- as the capital of a future Palestinian state.

Earlier on Friday, Fathi Hammad, a senior Hamas leader, said anyone seeking to move their embassy to Jerusalem was "an enemy of the Palestinians".Speaking before the United Nations on Friday, US ambassador Nikki Haley said the US "recognises the obvious; that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel".

She said the US continued to be "committed to achieving a lasting peace agreement", and accused the UN of bias, saying it "has outrageously been one of the world's foremost centres of hostility towards Israel"."Israel will never be, and never should be, bullied into an agreement by the United Nations or by any collection of countries that have proven their disregard for Israel's security," Mrs Haley said.

Israel had deployed extra battalions to the West Bank in anticipation of violence after Palestinian leaders called for protests after Friday prayers.At least 217 Palestinians were wounded in confrontations in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, Palestinian medics said.Elsewhere, demonstrations against Mr Trump's announcement have spread. Thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters held demonstrations in Jordan, Egypt, Iraq, Turkey, Tunisia and Iran.

Further afield, protesters rallied in Malaysia, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Kashmir and Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim-majority country.Jerusalem is of huge importance to both Israel and the Palestinians. It contains sites sacred to the three major monotheistic faiths - Judaism, Islam and Christianity.Israel occupied the eastern sector -- previously occupied by Jordan -- in 1967, and annexed it in 1980, but the move has never been recognised internationally.Some 330,000 Palestinians live in East Jerusalem, along with about 200,000 Israeli Jews in a dozen settlements there. The settlements are considered illegal under international law, though Israel does not regard them as settlements but legitimate neighbourhoods.

According to the 1993 Israel-Palestinian peace accords, the final status of Jerusalem is meant to be discussed in the latter stages of peace talks.The last round of talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in 2014 and while the US is formulating fresh proposals, Palestinian officials have said Mr Trump's announcement has disqualified the US from brokering future negotiations, The BBC report said.(UNI)