A Palestinian boy sits inside a car destroyed in an overnight Israeli air raid on
Gaza City. [AFP/Mohammed Abed]
Gaza City. [AFP/Mohammed Abed]
One Palestinian was lightly injured as Israeli fighter jets bombed a generator near the camp, causing a power outage across the area, said Gaza medical official Adham Abu Salmiya.
Missiles also hit a training camp of the armed wing of Hamas, the Al-Qassam Brigades, witnesses said.
The raid came hours after Israel launched airstrikes on the Az-Zaitoun neighborhood south of Gaza City causing damage but no injuries, medics said.
Just after midnight Friday, Israeli warplanes launched a series of raids targeting Gaza City, the northern towns of Beit Hanoun and Beit Lahiya, and Khan Younis in the south.
Gaza medical official Adham Abu Salmiya said an airstrike on a home near the former intelligence services headquarters in Gaza City killed 13-year-old Mahmoud Abu Samra and injured 18 others.
Elsewhere, Apache helicopters fired at least two missiles toward a Palestinian military site in the town of Beit Lahiya and a missile near Khan Younis landed in an open area and caused no injuries or damage.
On Thursday, an Israeli airstrike killed six Palestinians including five Popular Resistance Committee members and a two-year-old child in Rafah, near Egypt's border.
Israel says three of those Palestinians were involved in planning an attack which left eight Israelis dead near the southern resort city of Eilat on Thursday.
Following the attack, Israel's defense minister Ehud Barak said "The real source of the terror is in Gaza and we will act against them with full force and determination."
The PRC armed wing vowed to respond to what it called a "massacre" in Rafah.
A PRC spokesman, Abu Mujahed, said Israel fired the first shots Thursday and would be held responsible for "all the consequences of its crimes" in Rafah.
As the air force pounded targets across the Gaza Strip, militants there lobbed 12 rockets at towns and cities in southern Israel early on Friday, seriously injuring one person in the city of Ashdod, police and the military said.
"If terror organizations think they can harm our citizens and get away with it, they will soon learn how wrong they are," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late on Thursday.
"We will make them pay a price, a very heavy price."
World leaders were quick to condemn the violence, with the White House denouncing the "brutal terrorist attacks" and UN chief Ban Ki-moon expressing grave concern about an "escalation" of violence in the region.
On Thursday, militants opened fire on a bus packed with passengers heading to Eilat, then fled the scene and shortly afterwards, detonated a roadside bomb which hit a military vehicle.
Other gunmen then opened fire on a second bus and a car, and in a separate incident, a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at other vehicles in the area. Eight people died in the attacks and around 26 were injured.
Following a massive manhunt for the killers and ensuing series of gunbattles into the evening, six gunmen were killed, while a seventh blew himself up, army officials said.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said the attacks originated in Gaza, while another senior official told AFP the attackers had come from Gaza via the Sinai peninsula.
But Gaza's Hamas rulers issued a statement denying any involvement in the bloodshed.
Maan News Agency
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