Special to WorldTribune.com

GAZA CITY — Hamas, months after its war with Israel, has resumed major exercises in the Gaza Strip.

The Hamas military conducted what was termed an infantry exercise along the Mediterranean coast on late Dec. 17. The exercise took place in a facility built on the ruins of a Jewish community in the northern Gaza Strip some three kilometers from the Israeli border.

“This was a night exercise that included mortars, heavy machine guns and other weapons,” a Palestinian source said.

The source said this marked the largest Hamas exercise since the end of its 50-day with Israel in late August 2014. Since then, Hamas has been developing and testing a long-range rocket meant to resemble the Syrian-origin M-302.

The Hamas exercise sparked panic in Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip. But the Israeli military was said to have reassured residents they were not in danger of attack.

The Israeli military has intensified monitoring of the Gaza Strip over the last few weeks. But so far the military has not intervened in the nearly daily rocket tests, launched into the Mediterranean, as well as a flight of a Hamas unmanned aerial vehicle.

  First major exercise by Hamas since war panics Israelis living near Gaza border, WorldTribune.com