<p>Israeli tanks hit Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the army said, as Palestinian balloon attacks across the border continued despite international truce efforts.</p>.<p>An early-morning military statement said there had been airborne explosive and incendiary attacks into southern Israel on Saturday.</p>.<p>"In response to the ongoing events, a short while ago... tanks struck military posts belonging to the Hamas terror organization in the southern Gaza Strip," the English-language statement said.</p>.<p>There were no immediate reports of casualties.</p>.<p>Israel has bombed Gaza almost daily since August 6, in response to the airborne incendiary devices and, less frequently, rockets launched across the border.</p>.<p>The firebombs -- crude devices fitted to balloons, inflated condoms or plastic bags -- have triggered more than 400 blazes in southern Israel, according to the fire brigade.</p>.<p>An Egyptian delegation has been shuttling between the two sides to try to broker a renewal of an informal truce under which Israel committed to ease its 13-year-old blockade of Gaza in return for calm on the border.</p>.<p>It was joined this week by Qatar's Gaza envoy Mohammed el-Emadi who delivered the latest tranche of $30 million in aid to the territory on Tuesday before holding talks with Israeli officials in Tel Aviv.</p>.<p>Sources close to the Qatari delegation said the Israelis had told Emadi they were willing to end a punitive ban on fuel deliveries for Gaza's power plant and ease their blockade if there was an end to the fire balloons.</p>.<p>Financial aid for the impoverished territory from gas-rich Qatar had been a major component of the truce, first agreed in November 2018 and renewed several times since.</p>.<p>But Israel had also said it would take other measures to alleviate unemployment of more than 50 percent in the territory of some two million people.</p>.<p>Disagreements over their implementation have fuelled repeated flare-ups on the border.</p>.<p>These escalated into major conflicts in 2008, 2012 and 2014, and mediators have been striving to prevent a new war.</p>
<p>Israeli tanks hit Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, the army said, as Palestinian balloon attacks across the border continued despite international truce efforts.</p>.<p>An early-morning military statement said there had been airborne explosive and incendiary attacks into southern Israel on Saturday.</p>.<p>"In response to the ongoing events, a short while ago... tanks struck military posts belonging to the Hamas terror organization in the southern Gaza Strip," the English-language statement said.</p>.<p>There were no immediate reports of casualties.</p>.<p>Israel has bombed Gaza almost daily since August 6, in response to the airborne incendiary devices and, less frequently, rockets launched across the border.</p>.<p>The firebombs -- crude devices fitted to balloons, inflated condoms or plastic bags -- have triggered more than 400 blazes in southern Israel, according to the fire brigade.</p>.<p>An Egyptian delegation has been shuttling between the two sides to try to broker a renewal of an informal truce under which Israel committed to ease its 13-year-old blockade of Gaza in return for calm on the border.</p>.<p>It was joined this week by Qatar's Gaza envoy Mohammed el-Emadi who delivered the latest tranche of $30 million in aid to the territory on Tuesday before holding talks with Israeli officials in Tel Aviv.</p>.<p>Sources close to the Qatari delegation said the Israelis had told Emadi they were willing to end a punitive ban on fuel deliveries for Gaza's power plant and ease their blockade if there was an end to the fire balloons.</p>.<p>Financial aid for the impoverished territory from gas-rich Qatar had been a major component of the truce, first agreed in November 2018 and renewed several times since.</p>.<p>But Israel had also said it would take other measures to alleviate unemployment of more than 50 percent in the territory of some two million people.</p>.<p>Disagreements over their implementation have fuelled repeated flare-ups on the border.</p>.<p>These escalated into major conflicts in 2008, 2012 and 2014, and mediators have been striving to prevent a new war.</p>