Long-range rocket fired from Gaza into Israel
Israeli air strikes hit two towns in the Gaza Strip on Friday, wounding five people, the Israeli army and Palestinian medical sources said.
"Four people with moderate injuries arrived at Shuhadaa al-Aqsa hospital after an air raid that targeted a home in Deir al-Balah," said Adham Abu Selmiya, spokesman for the Hamas-run medical services in Gaza.
One of those wounded in the attack on the central Gaza town was a woman, he added.
A separate air strike in the southern town of Khan Yunis wounded one other person, Abu Selmiya said.
The Israeli army said it hit "terror sites," but gave no details of the targets.
Long-range rocket fired from Gaza into Isral
"The targeting of these terror-linked sites was in response to the firing of rockets at Israel’s southern communities," the army said in a statement.
The army said Palestinians had fired 10 mortars and a military-grade rocket into southern Israel over the last two days. There were no casualties.
Earlier Friday, a long-range rocket fired from Gaza into Israel exploded near the Negev desert town of Ofakim without causing any casualties, Israel’s military said.
The Soviet-designed Grad-type rocket damaged a tanker truck in the attack, which was "the first of its kind for several months," a military spokesman said.
Grad-type rockets have a range of up to 40 kilometres (25 miles), about twice the distance of the homemade Qassam rockets usually used by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.
The attack came a day after two mortar shells fired from Gaza hit southern Israel, causing no casualties or damage, and two days after an Israeli air strike killed an alleged senior Palestinian militant in Gaza City.
Israel cited persistent rocket fire from Gaza as its reason for launching a devastating 22-day offensive in December 2008 that killed more than 1,400 Palestinians.
None of the armed groups in Hamas-ruled Gaza immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
An Israeli airstrike this week killed two senior members of one such group, the Army of Islam..
Rocket fire from Gaza has sharply declined since Israel’s offensive in the coastal strip ended in early 2009.
Palestinian Islamists threaten Israel in Hebrew
Palestinian resistors posted a Hebrew-language threat on a radical Islamic website Thursday, vowing revenge for the deaths of two Gaza militants in an Israeli airstrike.
It appeared to be the first time that one of the murky, al-Qaeda-inspired groups in Gaza have issued a threat in Hebrew, though larger militant organizations, including Gaza’s Hamas rulers and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon, have done so before.
The recording, posted by a group identifying itself as Ansar al-Sunna, came a day after the Israeli airstrike killing the two senior members of the Army of Islam.
"Killing our comrades will not stop us continuing jihad. It won’t bring you security," the voice says, mentioning the names of the two men killed on Wednesday.
"We will continue firing rockets if God wills it, unless you leave Palestine. Your civilians will never be safe wherever they are from us," it says.