GAZA, Feb. 12 (UPI) -- Three armed Palestinian factions Sunday claimed responsibility for firing locally-made rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip.
In separate statements, the groups said they were retaliating to the recent Israeli escalation against activists last week in the Palestinian territories, in which 15 fighters were killed in air strikes.
Islamic Jihad's Saraya al-Quds said it fired two medium-range rockets at Majdal in southern Israel early Sunday in retaliation to Israel's assassination of one of its activists in the West Bank, Ahmad Raddad.
Fatah's armed wing, al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, said in another statement it fired a rocket overnight from eastern Gaza targeting a Jewish settlement, adding that its activists "returned safely to base."
The leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine's armed wing, Martyr Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades, said it also attacked with two rockets an Israeli military post east of al-Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.
There were no reports from Israel on the claimed incidents.
Meanwhile, Palestinian interior ministry officials said the Israeli authorities on Sunday reopened the Erez crossing between Israel and the northern Gaza Strip for Palestinian labor workers after a four-day closure following a suicide attack on the post.
Interior ministry spokesman Tawfik Abu Khousa told United Press International the Israeli authorities informed their Palestinian counterparts the crossing point will reopen Sunday to workers in Israel, as well as to journalists and diplomats .
Erez is the official crossing point between Gaza and Israel.
