Jerusalem:Israel on Saturday carried out retaliatory strikes on Gaza, killing one Palestinian and seriously wounding two, following two nights of rocket attacks that were the first since September.
Dozens of pre-dawn strikes targeted bases of Gaza's Islamist rulers Hamas and allied militant groups, a Gaza security source said.
Israel strikes kill one in Gaza The Israeli army said the strikes targeted a wide range of Hamas terror targets, including a naval base, a military compound, and a weapons manufacturing plant.
The Hamas-run health ministry identified the person killed as Ahmed al-Shehri, 27. But it did not say whether he was affiliated with any armed group.
Relatives of Ahmed al-Shehri, 27, mourn over his body at the family house during his funeral in the town of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip on Saturday. Israeli airstrikes on Gaza killed Ahmed al-Shehri on Saturday as aircraft pounded militant sites. The sound of explosions was heard across the tiny but densely populated territory.
After daybreak, curious onlookers gathered around a large crater scooped out of the sandy soil by the force of one of the blasts.
A Hamas source said that it had fired at the Israeli aircraft carrying out the raids and the Israeli military confirmed fresh 'incoming fire'.
Sworn enemies
The strikes came after at least 10 rockets were fired from Gaza at southern Israel late on Friday causing damage but no casualties.
The Israeli military said that eight of the rockets were intercepted by air defences.
Air raid sirens sounded in Israeli communities near the border.
One family house was hit, without causing any casualties, the army said, posting a picture of the damage on Twitter.
Israeli policeman stands by a wall damaged by a rocket fired from Gaza Strip in Sderot, Israel on Friday. It was the second consecutive evening that the army reported rocket fire from Gaza, shattering a calm that had lasted since September 12.
In August, a spate of rocket attacks, retaliatory airstrikes and clashes along the border had raised fears of an escalation as a general election approached in Israel.
Those polls, Israel's second general election this year took place on September 17, but have yet to yield a new government.
Sworn enemies Israel and Hamas have fought three wars in the Palestinian enclave since 2008.
Analysts say a fourth-round remains likely.
Crippling blockade
There have been repeated bouts of violence between Hamas and Israel over the past year as the Islamists have sought to improve on the terms of a UN- and Egyptian-brokered truce first hammered out in November last year.
In return for Hamas silencing the rockets, Israel agreed to a package of measures to ease the crippling blockade it has imposed on Gaza for more than a decade.
They included allowing in millions of dollars in aid from Hamas ally Qatar to pay for fuel for the territory's sole power station and cash for salaries and grants to tens of thousands of needy families.
A man checks a car damaged by shrapnel from a missile fired from Gaza Strip in Sderot, Israel on Friday. Palestinian militants in Gaza fired barrages of rockets into southern Israel on Friday. The truce has also seen Israel expand the distance it allows Gaza fishermen out into the Mediterranean, although it reduces it or even cuts it to zero in response to violence from the enclave.
The concessions authorised by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have been criticised by his opponents, including by his challenger for the premiership, centrist former military chief Benny Gantz.
Gantz called a renewal of the truce agreed by Netanyahu in May 'capitulation to blackmail'.
The Palestinians have also pressed on with weekly demonstrations along the Gaza-Israel border first launched in March last year.
The protests have frequently drawn live fire from Israel forces stationed along the heavily fortified border fence.
More than 90 Palestinians were wounded in this Friday's demonstrations, the health ministry said.
Read also:Palestinian dies after Israeli fire at Gaza protest
