Israel mounts strikes in Gaza after rocket attacks

GAZA - Israel launched fresh missile strikes in Gaza today, saying it targeted buildings used by Palestinian militants as a response to rocket attacks on the Jewish state.

The flare-up of violence followed Israel's killing of a top Islamic Jihad militant on Monday and threatened to unravel an eight-month-old ceasefire. Israel launched similar missile strikes overnight.

The air strikes were the first since several militant groups, including Islamic Jihad and Hamas, said last month they would stop anti-Israeli attacks from Gaza after Israel killed several militants in response to rocket attacks.

Palestinian medics said a woman and her two daughters were wounded by shrapnel when an Israeli missile hit a building in the southern Gaza town of Rafah that housed a pro-Islamic Jihad charity.

Witnesses said a second strike damaged a building in northern Gaza owned by President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah group.

The Israeli army said it had targeted buildings used by Islamic Jihad and militants from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which is part of Fatah.

An army spokeswoman said the missile strikes were in response to a barrage of rockets Islamic Jihad militants in northern Gaza had fired hours earlier into the Jewish state to avenge the killing of an Islamic Jihad commander, Loai Assadi.

The flare-up in violence threatened to dent international hopes that Israel's pullout from the Gaza Strip last month after 38 years of occupation could lead to revived peacemaking between Israel and Palestinians.

Israel had said after Monday's rocket salvoes, the first in about a month, that it would respond to any such attacks.

Abbas said the killing of Assadi had undermined efforts to maintain calm under the truce deal struck in March.

Israel has often targeted structures in Gaza it says were used or frequented by militant groups since the start of a Palestinian uprising in 2000 for statehood.

- REUTERS