JERUSALEM (REUTERS) - Israel carried out strikes early on Tuesday (April 19) in the Gaza Strip after a rocket was fired from the Palestinian enclave into Israel, witnesses and its ruling Islamist movement said.
Israeli aircraft hit the southern Gaza Strip, witnesses told AFP, while the armed wing of Hamas announced that it fired on Israeli planes.
Israel had shot down a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip on Monday, the Israeli military said, the first such attack in months as tensions over a flashpoint Jerusalem shrine drew angry pro-Palestinian rhetoric from Jordan and mediation efforts from the United States.
No Gaza faction claimed responsibility for the launch, which followed warnings by the dominant Hamas Islamists of reprisals for Israeli conduct around Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound.
Within hours, Israeli air strikes hit camps used by Hamas and another Gaza faction, Palestinian sources said. The military said one target was an arms manufacturing site. No one was hurt.
Since Friday, Al-Aqsa - also revered by Jews as a vestige of two ancient temples - has seen confrontations between Palestinian stone-throwers and Israeli riot police recalling violence that helped fan a Gaza war one year ago.
Palestinians accuse Israel of encroaching on Al-Aqsa during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Israel says Palestinian protesters seek to disrupt Muslim prayer for political ends and to prevent visits by Jews, who are now celebrating Passover.
The tensions complicate Israel's security ties with Jordan, which is custodian of Al-Aqsa and has a Palestinian majority.
Jordan's King Abdullah told United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres that Israel's Al-Aqsa policy "seriously undermines" chances of it making peace with the Palestinians, Amman said.
Jordan also summoned Israel's acting ambassador for a reprimand.
Escalating the rhetoric, Jordanian Prime Minister Bisher al-Khasawneh told Parliament: "I must laud... those throwing their stones at all of those Zionists who desecrate Al-Aqsa mosque with the protection of the Israeli occupation government."
Several passengers were injured when Israeli buses they were travelling on to Jerusalem's Old City were stoned by Palestinians on Sunday, police said, adding that Al-Aqsa protesters have been stockpiling rocks for attacks on Jewish visitors and police.
At least 152 Palestinians and eight police officers were injured around Al-Aqsa during Friday's confrontations, medics said.
"I view with gravity the statements blaming Israel for the violence that we are being subjected to. Some are encouraging stone-throwing," Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in video statement issued after Mr al-Khasawneh's televised remarks.
"This serves as a prize for the inciters, (chiefly) Hamas, who are trying to ignite violence here in Jerusalem," he said.
In Washington, the State Department said US officials engaged in phone calls with Israelis, Palestinians and Arab representatives over the weekend in an effort to prevent an escalation of the Jerusalem tensions.
