Israel says rockets test-fired from Gaza

Israel's military said fighters in the Gaza Strip test-fired rockets into the Mediterranean Sea, hours after the government approved the construction of 78 new homes in two settlements in the occupied West Bank.

Four rockets were fired in the past 24 hours, the military said, without elaborating on the test or type of rockets fired. There was no immediate confirmation from Palestinian officials in Gaza, which is controlled by Hamas.

Israel and Hamas were engaged in a  50-day war over the summer that claimed the lives of more than 2,100 Palestinians and 70 Israelis.

Rocket fire continued throughout the war, much of which was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome aerial defense system, according to the Israeli military. Rockets from Gaza now have the ability to reach Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

Violence between Palestinians and Israelis has flared in recent weeks, including over access to Jerusalem's most sacred and politically sensitive site, holy to both Jews and Muslims and home to Al-Aqsa mosque, Islam's third-holiest site, after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. 

In the deadliest violence in Jerusalem since 2008, two Palestinians on Tuesday killed four worshippers and a policeman at a West Jerusalem synagogue, increasing tensions between the two sides. It prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to order the demolition of the attackers' homes. Separately, Israel ordered the demolition of the home of a Palestinian it says was responsible for an attack in October that killed an Israeli woman and a baby.

Tuesday’s attack followed tit-for-tat violence that has raged in recent weeks, including the suspected lynching of a Palestinian bus driver on Sunday. Israeli police said the man took his own life.

Other clashes have taken place since the synagogue attack, with Israeli security forces on Wednesday firing tear gas at Palestinian protesters in East Jerusalem who threw stones at trucks and cars waiting to cross a roadblock.

Amid the tensions, Jerusalem's municipal planning committee has authorized 50 new housing units in Har Homa and 28 in Ramot. Israel describes those two urban settlements as Jerusalem neighborhoods.

Palestinians have been angered by a recent slew of plans Israel has advanced for about 4,000 housing units on West Bank land annexed by the city.

Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said of the latest announcement, "These decisions are a continuation of the Israeli government's policy to cause more tension, push toward further escalation and waste any chance to create an atmosphere for calm."

Israel's settlement activities have drawn criticism from the European Union and the United States, which ,like most countries, view the settlements as illegal.

Al Jazeera and wire services