IAF strikes terror tunnel, IDF officer wounded in Friday protest

IAF strikes terror tunnel Saturday morning, rocket sirens went off in at least 16 communities in southern Israel on Friday night.

By JPOST.COM STAFF
Updated: JULY 14, 2018 10:58
IAF strikes Gaza overnight, July 14, 2018 (IDF Spokesperson's Unit)
IAF struck a Hamas terror tunnel Saturday morning "following the overnight mortar fire from the Gaza Strip towards [Israeli] communities in the south", stated the IDF spokesperson.
Hamas launched at least 31 projectiles into Israel during Friday night, six of the rockets were intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome system, according to the IDF Spokesperson's Unit.
The mortar attacks from Gaza came as a retaliatory response to the bombing of targets in Gaza by Israeli Air Force jets. The IAF struck sites used to manufacture terror balloons and a Hamas training grounds.
Palestinian sources report the IAF struck targets in the Bureij refugee camp located in the central Gaza strip. 
The airstrikes were a retaliatory response to an IDF officer wounded by a grenade thrown by a fifteen-year-old Palestinian who was later shot and killed on Friday.
The officer was moderately injured in the terrorist grenade attack carried out during violent protests in the northern Gaza Strip and his name has not been made public.
He was transferred to hospital for medical treatment.
The Gaza Ministry of Health reports that 220 people were injured during the Friday protest in the northern Gaza Strip. 
The Friday protests, carried out under the name "The Great March of Return" had been taking place every Friday since March 30 and had claimed the lives of 138 Palestinians so far.