The Israeli military has heavily shelled residential areas in the Gaza Strip days after a similar attack injured three Palestinians in the Israeli-besieged enclave.

The Palestinian Naba news agency reported that Israeli tanks fired artillery shells at Palestinian homes and agricultural lands in the eastern part of Deir al-Balah city in central Gaza early on Tuesday.

Israeli military officials claimed that the assault came in response to an alleged attack by a Palestinian sniper against Israeli special forces east of Deir al-Balah.

Israeli tanks also fired two shells at the Kayber military base belonging to the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Palestinian Hamas resistance movement.

Another base with the Islamic Jihad resistance movement also came under a similar attack.

Meanwhile, Israeli military watchtowers in the Erez crossing on the northern Gazan border opened machine gun fire at a position of Gaza’s Interior Ministry.

The attacks caused material damage, but no injuries were reported.

In response, the Palestinian resistance fighters fired a barrage of machine gun bullets at the Israeli settlement of Ra’im near Gaza’s northern border.

A view of Gaza under Israeli attacks on September 6, 2016.

Amid the shelling, reports said Israeli fighter jets also dropped illumination flares on Gaza, with the regime’s spy aircraft flying over the territory.

Elsewhere, Israeli forces also opened fire at farmers in al-Sanati area in the city of Khan Yunis, southern Gaza, Palestinian media reported.

Early on Sunday, the Israeli military fired a volley of shells on the northern Gaza Strip, wounding at least three people over an alleged gunfire by Hamas aimed at its forces along the border.

Israel continues to carry out attacks on the Palestinian enclave from time to time.

The regime’s fighter jets frequently bomb Gaza. The Israeli military uses drones over the impoverished region either to monitor and photograph Palestinian military units in the blockaded coastal enclave, or launch aerial attacks against targets.

Tel Aviv launched its latest large-scale war on the Gaza Strip in early July 2014. The 50-day military aggression, which ended on August 26, 2014, killed nearly 2,200 Palestinians, including 577 children. Over 11,100 others, including 3,374 children, 2,088 women and 410 elderly people, were also wounded in the war.

Gaza has been under an Israeli siege since June 2007. The blockade has caused a decline in the standard of living as well as unprecedented levels of unemployment and unrelenting poverty.