200 rockets fired from Gaza; Israel responds with airstrikes

Tel Aviv (Israel): Hours after approximately 200 rockets were fired from the Gaza strip towards Israel on Saturday, the latter responded with airstrikes and artillery fire, said the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

According to Gaza's Health Ministry, one person has died as a result of the Israeli strikes, and seven others have been wounded, reported CNN.

The rockets fired by Gaza wounded two Israelis, including an 80-year old woman in the city of Kiryat Gat, about twenty miles from Gaza.

In light of the rocket fire, Israel announced that it was closing Kerem Shalom and Erez crossing between the two countries, as well as the Gaza fishing zone. No specific date has been given for when the crossings and the fishing zone would reopen.

Military activities have increased at the Israel-Gaza border in the past few days after nearly 5,000 Palestinians hit the streets for a weekly protest.

As a part of the "Great March of Return" or weekly protest which started last year, protestors are demanding rights to return to their home which they had to flee following the formation of Israel in 1948.

The Gaza health ministry has said that the Israeli army since last year has killed 275 demonstrators and wounded 17,000 others.

Israel has waged three offensives on the Gaza Strip since December 2008, destroying its infrastructure completely and killing thousands.

After the last war in 2014, the United Nations warned that the strip would be "uninhabitable" by 2020.

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