Gaza militants fire rocket into Israel as tensions soar

JERUSALEM (AP) — Palestinian militants have fired a rocket into southern Israel for the first time in months.

FILE – Israeli army soldiers guard a section of Israel’s separation barrier, in the West Bank village of Nilin, west of Ramallah, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2021. Two Palestinian men were critically injured by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank on Monday, the Palestinian Health Ministry said, the latest incident in a wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (AP Photo/Nasser Nasser, File)

It’s a potentially major escalation after clashes at a sensitive holy site in Jerusalem and a wave of attacks and military raids elsewhere.

Israel said it intercepted the rocket Monday, and there were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Israel holds Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers responsible for all such projectiles and usually launches airstrikes in their wake.

It was the first such rocket fire since New Year’s Eve.

Hours earlier, the leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group, which boasts an arsenal of rockets, had issued a brief, cryptic warning, condemning Israeli “violations” in Jerusalem.

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