Tension grows in Gaza as 2 rockets fired into central Israel

GAZA - Tension has mounted between Gaza and Israel on Thursday night after two long-range rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip into central Israel.

No injuries were reported and no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks.

The Israeli media reported that two rockets, fired from the Gaza Strip, landed near Tel Aviv in central Israel.

In Gaza, Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Hamas movement which rules the Gaza Strip, said in a short statement that "Al-Qassam Brigades is not responsible for the rockets launched tonight towards the enemy."

The statement said "the rockets were launched during a meeting held in Gaza between the leadership of the Islamic Hamas movement and the Egyptian security delegation on the calm understanding related to the Gaza Strip."

Meanwhile, the Islamic Jihad Movement spokesman Dawood Shihab denied in a press statement the Israeli media reports, which claimed that his group was responsible for launching two rockets from Gaza into Israel.

Earlier on Thursday, Palestinian security officials said that the senior Egyptian security delegation, who arrived in Gaza on Thursday, had left the coastal enclave and headed back to Israel after the rockets attack.

The officials said that the Egyptian delegation left the Gaza Strip after holding talks with Hamas leaders earlier in Gaza over implementing a calm understanding brokered by Egypt and the UN reached between Hamas and Israel in November.