According to reports, the area which came under attack is located some 130 km from the Gaza Strip.

Tel Aviv: At least six people were injured after a misfired missile hit the Egyptian resort town of Taba on Friday. According to reports, the area which came under attack is located some 130 km from the Gaza Strip. A witness in Taba confirmed hearing an explosion and seeing smoke rising, Reuters reported, but the news agency was not immediately able to identify the blast’s source.

Colonel (Rtd) Yitchak Bar Shabby of the Israel army told IANS that it was likely to have been fired by Hamas. He however did not rule out the involvement of the Iran-backed Houthi militia.

Taba, in Egypt’s Sinai peninsula, is popular with tourists. It is about a three-hour drive from Egypt’s Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.The Taba explosion highlights the risks facing Egypt and other countries in the region as fighting intensifies between Israel and Hamas.

On October 22, several Egyptian border guards were injured after they were hit by fragments of a shell launched from an Israeli tank. Israel had apologised for then accident.

Egypt has been playing an active role in negotiations for getting aid to the Palestinians and mediations for hostage release.

Israeli military conducts ‘targeted raids’ inside Gaza Strip

For a second straight night, Israeli troops conducted “targeted raids” inside the Gaza Strip before withdrawing from the Hamas-controlled enclave, the military said in a statement on Friday. A video published by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) showed tanks and armoured vehicles moving on a road near agricultural land as well as strikes on buildings and open areas, reports CNN.

The raid, which included aircraft and artillery strikes in the Shaja’iyah neighborhood, targeted Hamas infrastructure including “anti-tank missile launch sites, military command and control centers, as well as Hamas terrorists”, the IDF said.

On Thursday, the IDF had said that it carried out a “targeted raid” in the northern Gaza Strip as “part of preparations for the next stages of combat”, in which the Jewish nation is planning a ground offensive in Gaza, reports Xinhua news agency. During the raid, soldiers located and struck “numerous” militants, infrastructure and anti-tank missile launch posts and “operated to prepare the battlefield”, it added.

Israel has vowed to wipe out Hamas, the militant group that controls Gaza, in response to its October 7 deadly terror attacks and kidnap rampage in which 1,400 people, mostly civilians, were killed and more than 220 taken hostage.

In a televised address on Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confirmed that Israeli is “preparing for a ground incursion,” into Gaza following nearly three weeks of airstrikes on the coastal strip.