World Bulletin / News Desk

 On Thursday Israel hit Gaza with bombing raids against three militant training camps, and a group sympathetic with ISIL claimed responsibility for rocket attacks on Israel, after Israeli naval forces had opened fire on a Palestinian fishing boat on Wednesday, abducting all five fishermen on board.

Head of the Gaza Fishermen’s Syndicate Nizar Ayash said a number of fishermen were sailing near the shores of the Gaza City on Wednesday morning when Israeli forces targeted their boat, Arabic-language Sky News Arabia satellite news network reported.

Israeli troops later confiscated the boat and took it to an unknown location.

Witnesses and medics said the predawn attacks on two camps belonging to Hamas who dominate in Gaza caused some damage but no casualties.

The Israeli military confirmed the strikes saying that in response to rocket fire it "struck three terror infrastructures in the Gaza Strip," and added that "hits were confirmed."

The rockets aimed at the Israeli city of Ashkelon and town of Netivot were the second such launchings at Israel in the past week, marking an escalation since a hiatus in cross-border fire since a 50-day Israeli war with Hamas ended with an Egyptian-brokered truce in August.

A group posted a statement on Twitter claiming responsibility for firing the rockets. Calling itself the Omar Brigades the group said the rocket fire on Wednesday was in retaliation for Hamas's killing of an ISIL supporter in a shootout a day earlier in Gaza.

"We are continuing with our jihad against the Jews, the enemies of God and no one will be able to deter us," the statement said, using the term in Arabic for holy war.

In last week's rocket fire, Gaza militants had launched their deepest strike at Israel since a 50-day war of last summer, hitting near the port city of Ashdod.