Israel forces, Gaza militants clash

TEL AVIV, FEB 2 (AP): Israel struck targets in the Gaza Strip early Thursday hours after Palestinian militants fired a rocket at Israel, the military said, the latest in an uptick of violence in the region.

Israeli aircraft struck a rocket production workshop in the Gaza Strip as well as a storage site used by a rocket production line.

Late Wednesday, Israeli air defenses intercepted a rocket from Gaza, the army said.

There were no reports of casualties from the rocket or the airstrikes and later Thursday the violence appeared to have subsided.

Also Thursday, Israeli media reported a 75-yearold man wounded in a Palestinian attack last year died from wounds sustained from the violence.

The exchange further raised tensions during a particularly bloody period in the long-running IsraeliPalestinian conflict, which in recent days has seen a deadly military raid in the

Fire and smoke rise above buildings in Gaza City as Israel launched air strikes on the Palestinian enclave, on Feb. 2. (AP) West Bank and and a fatal Palestinian shooting attack outside a synagogue.

Last week, Gaza militants and Israel broke months of cross-border calm by exchanging rockets and airstrikes after Israel killed 10 Palestinians, most of them militants, in a military operation in the West Bank refugee camp of Jenin.

The latest friction