Egypt bombs targets in northern Sinai, enters Gaza airspace (Palestinian media)

Local media in Gaza and the Sinai Peninsula reported Thursday morning that Egyptian airplanes had bombed targets in the north of the peninsula, close to the Rafah crossing into the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.

Hamas officials claimed that the Egyptian aircraft violated Gazan airspace during the course of the operation.

Since the ouster of Egypt's Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in 2013, jihadist groups have stepped up their attacks against Egyptian security forces in the northern Sinai peninsula.

Egypt began creating a wide buffer zone along the Gaza border in late 2014 in a bid to destroy the hundreds of smuggling tunnels Cairo says are used by Palestinian activists to deliver weapons to jihadists who are battling Egyptian forces in the Sinai peninsula.

Gaza has been under an Israeli naval and air blockade since Hamas came to power in 2007.
  i24news.tv
31/12/15
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