(4 Jul 2014) Israeli police beefed up security as Palestinians prepared for the first Friday prayers of Ramadan amid growing rocket fire from Gaza and fear of new clashes in East Jerusalem.
Israel began moving troop reinforcements to its border with the Gaza Strip on Thursday, defence officials said, raising the possibility of an expanded military operation in the Palestinian territory in response to intensifying rocket barrages.
Israel said the show of force on the Gaza border was a defence measure.
The movement of tanks and artillery forces came after another night of heavy rocket fire, including barrages that struck two homes in the southern border town of Sderot.
The rocket fire comes at a time of heightened tensions following the abduction and killing of three Israeli teens in the West Bank.
Israel accused Hamas of being behind the deaths, and arrested hundreds of Hamas operatives in the West Bank as part of a broad manhunt in the largest ground operation there in almost a decade.
The Palestinians have meanwhile accused Israeli extremists of abducting and killing a teenage boy in east Jerusalem in a revenge attack.
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