Israeli army strikes Hamas sites in northern Gaza Strip

The Israeli army on Wednesday shelled two Hamas observation posts in the northern Gaza Strip, according to an army statement.

The statement quoted an army spokesman as saying that the shelling had come after two Palestinians had attempted to set fire to an Israeli military installation near the Karni cargo terminal near the border with Gaza.

"The two suspects did not breach the security fence [separating Israel from the Gaza Strip], nor did they enter Israeli territory," the statement read.

Hamas, which has governed the Gaza Strip since 2007, has yet to respond to the army's claims.

Wednesday's shelling comes only two days before planned Palestinian demonstrations in which Gazans plan to converge on the Gaza-Israel border.

All major Palestinian factions have endorsed the planned rallies, during which Gazan protesters will converge en masse on the strip's roughly 45-kilometer-long eastern border with Israel.

Since 2007, the Gaza Strip has groaned under a crippling Israeli/Egyptian blockade that has gutted its economy and deprived its more than two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.