Israel said it attacked targets in the Gaza Strip today after Palestinian militants fired rockets at southern Israel in what they said was a response to an Israel air strike yesterday that wounded two militants and eight bystanders.
The army said it had targeted "Hamas terror activity sites and terrorist squads responsible for the rocket fire", but gave no details.
Gaza hospital officials said one Islamic Jihad militant thought to have been involved in the rocket attack had been wounded by Israeli tank fire east of the town of Rafah.
Residents of the town of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip said an Israeli tank fired at the suspected launch area, slightly wounding four children and damaging a mosque minaret and a water tower.
The Israeli army says 470 rockets have been fired from Gaza this year, 10 in October alone.
The armed wing of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist faction which controls the Gaza Strip, said it had carried out the latest rocket attack with the militant Islamic Jihad group.
It was the first time since June that Hamas had acknowledged launching rockets at Israel. An Israeli military spokeswoman said some rockets had landed harmlessly near the border with the Gaza Strip.
Sunday's air strike was aimed at two Palestinian militants, one of whom was critically wounded, as was one of the bystanders.
The latest Israeli attack follows a missile attack yesterday when ten people were wounded when an Israeli missile struck a motorcycle being driven in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah.
An Israeli warplane fired the missile to target the two people riding on the motorcycle in the neighborhood of al- Barazeel, critically injuring them, Asharf al-Qedra, spokesman for the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, told reporters.
Five children were among those hurt.
Agencies