Israel accuses Gaza’s Islamic Jihad of launching rocket

Israel on Tuesday blamed the Gaza-based Islamic Jihad group of launching a rocket toward Israel on Monday, local media reported.

Ronen Manelis, a spokesman with the Israeli military, said the rocket was “a deliberate fire by the Islamic Jihad,’’ adding the rocket landed in the sea, a few kilometres from Israel’s shore.

According to Manelis, the Palestinian militant group has been attempting to spark more tensions in order to sabotage the cease-fire efforts between Hamas, an Islamist Palestinian movement that runs the Gaza Strip, and Israel.

Meanwhile, an army statement said Baha Abu al-Ata, commander of Islamic Jihad Movement in the northern region, was behind the attempted attack in an unusual move, in which Israel blames a specific person for a rocket fire from Gaza.

The Israeli army believes al-Ata has been operating under orders from Islamic Jihad’s Chief, Ziad Nahala.

Following the incident, the office of the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories ordered to reduce the fishing zone for Gaza’s fishermen to six nautical miles “until further notice”.

Israel usually responds to such incidents with airstrikes or artillery attacks that target Hamas positions or sites.

However, this time, the army said no counter-attack will be carried out.

Tensions have been high between Israel and Gaza amid a 12-year blockade imposed by Israel and a weekly rally by thousands of Palestinians along the security fence separating the two territories.