Image copyright Israeli prime minister's office Image caption One of the mortars from Gaza landed in the grounds of an Israeli kindergarten

Israel has attacked militant sites in Gaza after coming under the heaviest barrage of mortar and rocket fire from the Palestinian enclave in years.

The Israeli army said air strikes hit 35 targets, including a cross-border tunnel, belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad - Gaza's main militant groups.

In Israel, an empty kindergarten was hit when militants fired more than 30 mortars earlier in the day.

The flare-up follows weeks of deadly violence on the Gaza-Israel border.

More than 100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli snipers amid protests which saw thousands of Palestinians mass on the border in support of the declared right of Palestinian refugees to return to their ancestral homes in what is now Israel.

Israel said its snipers had opened fire on attackers or people attempting to infiltrate under cover of protests, but UN and human right officials have accused Israel of using disproportionate force.

'Heavy price'

Israeli fighter jets struck seven sites across the Gaza Strip, hitting what the Israeli military said were "six military compounds, munition storage warehouses, naval targets, and terror headquarters".

Israeli Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said: "Hamas and Islamic Jihad have already paid a heavy price and the bill has just been presented to them."

Gaza's Hamas-run Ministry of Education said a school was hit by shrapnel from Tuesday's air strikes, though there were no initial reports of Palestinian casualties.

The Israeli military said its air force also struck "an offensive Hamas terror tunnel" near the Kerem Shalom crossing, where controlled amounts of food, fuel and goods are transferred into Gaza.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Israeli aircraft hit seven locations across Gaza

It said the tunnel stretched for 900m (3,000ft) under Israeli territory. It is the latest in a series of cross-border tunnels which Israel has destroyed or disabled since the end of the 2014 Israel-Gaza war.

During that conflict, Israel destroyed more than 30 tunnels which it said were meant for attacks.

The Kerem Shalom crossing is a lifeline for Gaza, which has been under an Israeli, then Egyptian, blockade beginning in 2006 when Hamas militants attacked the crossing and kidnapped an Israeli soldier.

The blockade was tightened after Hamas, an Islamist group which won Palestinian elections in 2006, forcibly ousted its secular Fatah rivals from Gaza in June 2007.

UN anger

Sirens warning of incoming fire rang out in Israeli communities around the Gaza Strip on and off on Monday.

The Israeli military said the biggest volley of mortar shells was fired at several sites in Israel in the early hours, with most intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile defence system.

Some mortars landed, included one in the grounds of a kindergarten in the Eshkol region, which borders Gaza, shortly before pupils were due to arrive.

More shells were launched in subsequent attacks, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said. Three Israelis were wounded, media reports said.

The UN Middle East peace envoy, Nickolay Mladenov, condemned the attacks on Israel, saying he was "deeply concerned by the indiscriminate firing of rockets by Palestinian militants from Gaza.

"Such attacks are unacceptable and undermine the serious efforts by the international community to improve the situation in Gaza".

Image copyright AFP Image caption Four Palestinian militants were killed by Israeli tank-fire earlier this week

Hours earlier, machine-gun fire from Gaza hit houses and vehicles in the Israeli border town of Sderot, though without causing injuries, the IDF said.

The upsurge in violence came after Israeli tank fire killed four militants in Gaza in two separate incidents at the start of the week.

A member of Hamas was killed on Monday after Israeli soldiers caught a group attempting to breach the border and carry out an attack, while on Sunday three members of Islamic Jihad were killed after placing an explosive device on the border fence, the IDF said.</s>JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military struck a Gaza observation post on Sunday, killing three Palestinian militants after the troops found a bomb planted along the border.

The military said a tank fired a shell at the militant position in southern Gaza after Israeli troops detonated an explosive device found along the security fence with Gaza that was meant to harm soldiers patrolling the frontier.

The Palestinian Health Ministry said three people were killed, and the Islamic Jihad militant group identified them as its members.

Gaza militants regularly plant explosives near the sensitive frontier, occasionally harming Israeli soldiers. On Saturday, militants briefly infiltrated Israel and set a fire. In response, Israel struck Hamas positions.

"We will not tolerate attacks against us from the Gaza Strip," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at his weekly Cabinet meeting. "The army and the security forces are working around the clock to protect the State of Israel, Israeli citizens and Israel's borders."

The violence comes at a tense time along the frontier. More than 110 Palestinians have been killed in weekly protests that began March 30 and are aimed at lifting an Israeli and Egyptian blockade of Gaza imposed after Hamas seized power in 2007.

Hamas has vowed to continue the rallies. Israel says it is defending its border as well as its communities nearby. It accuses Hamas of trying to carry out attacks under the cover of protests.</s>GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli tank shelling killed two members of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad and wounded a third in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, medical officials said, after weeks of border protests that have drawn lethal army fire.

Israel's military confirmed that it targeted an observation post, calling the attack retaliation for a bomb that had been placed next to the border fence overnight. The bomb was detonated by army engineers, causing no casualties, the military said on Twitter.

Hostilities over the Gaza frontier have soared since Palestinians began mass-demonstrations on March 30, which Israel deems cover for attempts to breach the border fence.

At least 113 Palestinians have been killed and thousands hurt by army gunfire in the protests, drawing foreign censure.

There have been no Israeli casualties along the Gaza frontier, but Israel has reported extensive damage to farmland on its side of the border from firebomb-bearing kites flown over from Gaza.

Gaza is under the control of Hamas, an Islamist movement hostile to Israel. Islamic Jihad operates with a measure of independence from Hamas.

In Israel, the military announced the death on Saturday of a soldier who was injured during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Thursday when Palestinians dropped a stone slab on his head from a building. Hundreds attended his funeral in Jerusalem on Sunday.</s>Israel has carried out dozens of airstrikes on targets in Gaza in response to what it called the biggest barrage of rocket and mortar fire from the strip since the 2014 war there.

The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) said it launched more than 30 airstrikes targeting the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, after more than 28 rockets and mortars were fired towards Israeli territory Tuesday morning.

The IDF said 25 incoming projectiles were intercepted by its iron dome air defense system.

Israeli media reported that one of the mortars landed in the yard of a kindergarten, which was empty at the time because school had not started.

IDF spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said Israel was retaliating against a "massive" attack by militants in the Gaza Strip.

"We are not looking to escalate the situation. We're responding to the attacks in Gaza. And the responsibility and the control is in Hamas' hands," he said, referring to the militant group that controls Gaza. Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoom defended the mortar fire, saying it came "within the framework of the natural right to defend our people." He said Israel would be responsible for any further escalation. The UN's chief Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov expressed his deep concern at what he called "indiscriminate firing" by Gaza militants towards communities in southern Israel. "Such attacks are unacceptable and undermine the serious efforts by the international community to improve the situation in Gaza. All parties must exercise restraint, avoid escalation and prevent incidents that jeopardize the lives of Palestinians and Israelis," Mladenov said in a statement. Tuesday's confrontations came after weeks of Palestinian protests , known as the Great March of Return, near the fence that separates Gaza and Israel, during which more than 100 protesters were killed by Israeli fire. The protests were intended to highlight Palestinian demands to return to homes and villages they lost during the creation of the state of Israel seven decades ago, and were given a boost by the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem on May 14. Israel said the protests were orchestrated by Hamas and presented a security threat to people living nearby.</s>Israel has carried out dozens of airstrikes on targets in Gaza in response to what it called the biggest barrage of rocket and mortar fire from the Strip since the 2014 war there.

The Israeli Defense Forces, or IDF, said it launched more than 35 airstrikes targeting the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, after approximately 70 rockets and mortars were fired toward Israeli territory Tuesday morning.

At least 25 incoming projectiles were intercepted by its iron dome air defense system, the IDF said earlier in the day.

Hamas reported early Wednesday that militant groups in Gaza have agreed to a ceasefire if Israel does the same.

In a statement, Khalil Al Hayya, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, said that after the intense fighting on Tuesday there had been considerable mediation efforts — an apparent reference to Egyptian-led talks — resulting in “a consensus to return to the ceasefire understandings of the Gaza Strip.”

Referring to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, Al Hayya said, “the resistance factions committed (to the ceasefire), as long as the Occupation does the same,” using the militant groups’ term for Israel.

There was no comment from Israel on the latest ceasefire reports, a senior Israeli official told CNN Wednesday morning.

The US has called for an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council to “discuss the latest attacks on Israel out of the Gaza Strip by Hamas and other militants,” the US Mission to the UN said in a statement.

The Mission expected the meeting to take place Wednesday afternoon.

“The recent attacks out of Gaza are the largest we have seen since 2014. Mortars fired by Palestinian militants hit civilian infrastructure, including a kindergarten. The Security Council should be outraged and respond to this latest bout of violence directed at innocent Israeli civilians, and the Palestinian leadership needs to be held accountable for what they’re allowing to happen in Gaza,” US Ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said, according to the statement.

Israel said three of its soldiers were injured, two lightly and a third moderately, in the militant fire from Gaza. In one of the day’s first barrages, one of the mortars landed in the yard of a kindergarten, which was empty at the time because school had not started.

The IDF said Israeli air force planes had attacked targets in seven locations belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, including “six military compounds, munition storage warehouses, naval targets, and terror headquarters.”

There were no reports of any injuries. Other targets according to the IDF included “a rocket manufacturing workshop, advanced naval weaponry, military compounds

Among the targets, the IDF said, were, “sheds of drones used for terror purposes, a rocket manufacturing workshop, advanced naval weaponry, military compounds, training facilities and a munitions manufacturing site.”

There were no reports of any injuries.

A senior Israeli official denied reports a ceasefire deal has been reached between Israel and militant groups in Gaza. Reports in Arab media spoke of a ceasefire agreement mediated by Egypt and due to come into force at midnight.

An official from Islamic Jihad told CNN that Egyptian intelligence had asked the militant group to return to the 2014 ceasefire agreement, adding, “We (Islamic Jihad) are committed to it as long as Israel is.”

The 2014 ceasefire agreement is a reference to the agreement reached at the end of the last all-out war between Israel and Hamas.

A second Islamic Jihad official told CNN that “Egyptian efforts reached a ceasefire and a return to the 2014 agreement.” The official told Egypt that militants in Gaza did not want escalation with Israel, but said they had the right to defend themselves if attacks continued.

In a significant move, Israel singled out Islamic Jihad as the militant group that carried out Tuesday’s attacks.

In a statement, the IDF said the action was a “severe, dangerous, and orchestrated act of terror, aimed at Israeli civilians and children.”

Islamic Jihad “follows the ideology of Iran, is funded by Iran, and in today’s attack, used munition made by Iran,” the statement said.

But the IDF statement also repeated Israel’s often-stated position that it continues to hold Hamas — the militant group that controls Gaza — accountable for everything that happens in the Gaza Strip. “Hamas has the ability to escalate or de-escalate the situation,” the statement said.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed joint responsibility for the attacks.

In a statement issued by the militant groups’ armed wings, the Al-Qassam Brigades and the Al-Quds Brigades respectively, the two groups blamed Israel for starting the latest round of aggression and said they had cooperated in launching the attacks because Israel’s “crimes could not be tolerated in any way.”

The statement said that if Israel continued to attack Gaza then “all resistance options remain open no matter what the cost.”

There have been no reports of any fatalities or injuries arising from Israel’s airstrikes from either the Palestinian Ministry of Health or from the militant groups themselves.

Israel and the United States consider Hamas a terrorist organization.

UN chief Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov expressed his deep concern at what he called “indiscriminate firing” by Gaza militants toward communities in southern Israel.

“Such attacks are unacceptable and undermine the serious efforts by the international community to improve the situation in Gaza. All parties must exercise restraint, avoid escalation and prevent incidents that jeopardize the lives of Palestinians and Israelis,” Mladenov said in a statement.

Also Tuesday, the Israeli navy intercepted a Palestinian boat that set sail from Gaza aiming to breach Israel’s naval blockade of the enclave, the IDF said. The IDF said there were about 17 people on board. It said the boat was apprehended peacefully and had been towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod.

The confrontations came after weeks of Palestinian protests, known as the Great March of Return, near the fence that separates Gaza and Israel, during which more than 100 protesters were killed by Israeli fire.

The protests were intended to highlight Palestinian demands to return to homes and villages they lost during the creation of the state of Israel seven decades ago, and were given a boost by the opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem on May 14. Israel said the protests were orchestrated by Hamas and presented a security threat to people living nearby.</s>Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired dozens of mortars at Israel in the heaviest such barrage in years.

Some 28 were launched. Most were intercepted though one landed in the yard of a kindergarten, slightly wounding a worker.

Israel responded with air strikes on militant positions in Gaza. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The latest flare-up follows weeks of Israel-Gaza violence which has seen more than 100 Palestinians killed.

They were shot dead by Israeli snipers amid protests which saw thousands of Palestinians mass on the Gaza-Israel border in support of their refugee population.

Israel said its snipers had opened fire on attackers or people attempting to infiltrate under cover of protests, but UN and human right officials have accused Israel of using disproportionate force.

Sirens rang out in southern Israeli communities in the early hours of Monday, warning of incoming fire.

The Israeli military said a volley of mortar shells were fired at several sites in Israel, with most intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile defence system.
• Did Israel use excessive force at Gaza protests?

Some mortars landed, included one in the grounds of a kindergarten in the Eshkol region, which borders the Gaza Strip, shortly before pupils were due to arrive.

Three more shells were launched in two subsequent attacks, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli military "will respond very forcefully" to the attacks, which he blamed on Gaza's ruling Hamas movement and the smaller Gaza-based militant group Islamic Jihad.

Following the barrage, Israeli aircraft struck bases belonging to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, local residents said.

The official news agency of the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority, Wafa, said Israel had also fired at least 10 artillery shells at sites east of Gaza City after the first mortar attack, causing damage but no injuries.

Hours earlier, machine-gun fire from Gaza hit houses and vehicle in the Israeli border town of Sderot, though without causing injuries, the IDF said.

The upsurge in violence came after Israeli tank fire killed four militants in Gaza in two separate incidents at the start of the week.

A member of Hamas was killed on Monday after Israeli soldiers caught a group attempting to breach the border and carry out an attack, while on Sunday three members of Islamic Jihad were killed after placing an explosive device on the border fence, the IDF said.

The latest cross-border violence is some of the heaviest since a 50-day war between Israel and militants in Gaza in 2014. That followed an upsurge of rocket fire into Israel, and the killing by Israel of the commander of Hamas's military wing.</s>Palestinian militants launched their heaviest barrages against Israel since the 2014 Gaza war today and Israeli aircraft struck back, in a surge of fighting after weeks of border violence.

Palestinian militants launched their heaviest barrages against Israel since the 2014 Gaza war today and Israeli aircraft struck back, in a surge of fighting after weeks of border violence.

Three Israeli soldiers injured as dozens of mortars and rockets fired from Gaza

Three Israeli soldiers were wounded by shrapnel, the military said, after dozens of mortar bombs and rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip, triggering warning sirens in southern Israel throughout the day and after dark. There were no immediate reports of Palestinian casualties.

Israel has long said it will not tolerate such attacks, and its warplanes hit more than 30 targets belonging to armed groups, including a cross-border tunnel under construction, the military said. It accused Gaza's dominant Hamas movement and the pro-Iran Islamic Jihad group of launching the salvoes. The armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the firing and said it was in response to Israel's killing of dozens of Palestinians since March 30, mainly in Gaza border protests.

“Qassam and Jerusalem Brigades (the groups' armed wings) announce joint responsibility for bombarding (Israel's) military installations and settlements near Gaza with dozens of rocket shells throughout the day,” they said in a joint statement. "It comes in response to Zionist aggression and crimes against our people and our resistance fighters ... in addition to war crimes conducted by the enemy every day against our people during the marches of return along the border of Gaza Strip.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened security chiefs, and Intelligence Minister Israel Katz said the country was "at the closest point to the threshold of war" since the seven-week conflict with Palestinian militants four years ago. "If the firing (from Gaza) does not stop, we will have to escalate our responses and it could lead to a deterioration of the situation," Katz said on Army Radio.

Daoud Shehab, an Islamic Jihad spokesman, said Egyptian officials had been in contact with the group to try to restore calm. He said Islamic Jihad did not want the violence to escalate and blamed Israel for the flare-up.

Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus, a spokesman for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), said the most extensive strikes from Gaza since the 2014 war also drew "the largest IDF retaliatory attack" since that conflict. The Israeli military said more than 25 projectiles were fired on Tuesday. Several were shot down by its Iron Dome rocket interceptor system while others landed in empty lots and farmland.

One exploded in the yard of a kindergarten, damaging its walls and scattering the playground with debris and shrapnel, about an hour before it was scheduled to open for the day. Violence has soared along the Gaza frontier in recent weeks, during which 116 Palestinians were killed by Israeli fire at mass demonstrations calling for Palestinians' right to return to ancestral lands now in Israel.

A Hamas spokesman defended Tuesday's attacks as a "natural response to Israeli crimes". An Islamic Jihad spokesman said "the blood of our people is not cheap". Plumes of smoke and dust rose from the sites hit in the Israeli air strikes. The powerful explosions shook buildings nearby, causing panic among rush-hour crowds on streets and in markets. The Gazan Ministry of Education said shrapnel from one missile flew into a school. Nickolay Mladenov, the U.N.'s special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, said he was deeply concerned by "the indiscriminate firing of rockets by Palestinian militants from Gaza towards communities in southern Israel".

Amid international condemnation of its use of lethal force at the mass demonstrations that began on March 30, Israel said many of the dead were militants and that the army was repelling attacks on the border fence. Palestinians and their supporters say most of the protesters were unarmed civilians and Israel was using excessive force against them. Off Gaza's coast on Tuesday, the Israeli navy intercepted a boat that organisers of the Palestinian border protests launched from the enclave in a challenge to an Israeli maritime blockade.

The military said the vessel was stopped without much incident and would be towed to the Israeli port of Ashdod where the 17 people on board would be questioned and then returned to the Gaza Strip. More than two million Palestinians are packed into the narrow coastal enclave. Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but, citing security concerns, maintains tight control of its land and sea borders, which has reduced its economy to a state of collapse. Egypt also restricts movement in and out of Gaza on its border.</s>The Israeli military said more than 25 mortar shells have been fired from the Gaza Strip toward communities in southern Israel.

The Israeli military said more than 25 mortar shells have been fired from the Gaza Strip toward communities in southern Israel.

At least 25 mortars fired from Gaza into southern Israel

The military said most were intercepted by the Iron Dome defence system and no one was hurt in the barrage.

But the volume of mortars would appear to be the largest fired in a single incident since the 2014 Israel-Hamas war. Israeli media reported that one of shells landed near a kindergarten shortly before it opened.

The border area has been tense in recent weeks as the Palestinians have held mass protests aimed at lifting a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas seized power in 2007. Israeli fire has killed more than 110 Palestinians, most of them during the Hamas-led protests, which climaxed on May 14.

On Sunday, Israeli shelling killed three Palestinian militants from the smaller Islamic Jihad group after the troops found a bomb planted along the border.

On Monday, a tank fired at a Hamas position in the Gaza Strip, killing one man and wounding another, after Israeli troops came under fire on the frontier while apprehending two armed Palestinians. Hamas has said that a boatful of students and medical patients is to set sail out of Gaza City’s port on Tuesday, aiming to break 11 years of naval blockade imposed by Israel, which could spark further conflict.

Israel says it is defending its border as well as its communities nearby.

It accuses Hamas of trying to carry out attacks under the cover of protests.</s>A man holds shrapnel from mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip that landed near a kindergarten, in a Kibbutz on the Israeli side of the Israeli-Gaza border, May 29, 2018. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

GAZA-ISRAEL BORDER (Reuters) - Palestinian militants fired more than 25 mortar bombs from Gaza into Israel on Tuesday, the Israeli military said, in one of the heaviest barrages in years.

No casualties were reported as sirens sounding across Israeli towns and villages near the Gaza border in the morning sent residents racing to shelters. The Israeli military said most of the projectiles were shot down by its Iron Dome rocket interceptor.

Violence has soared recently along the Gaza frontier, where 116 Palestinians have been killed byIsraeli fire during mass demonstrations for a right of return to ancestral lands now in Israel.

Amid international condemnation for its use of lethal force, Israel said many of the dead were militants and that the army was repelling attacks on the border fence. Palestinians and their supporters say most of the protesters were unarmed civilians and Israel was using excessive force against them.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the mortar bomb barrages from any of the armed groups in Gaza, which is controlled by the Islamist militant Hamas movement.

But the attack followed Israeli tank shelling on Sunday that killed three members of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad after an explosive device was placed at the border fence. The group had vowed to take revenge.

One of the mortar bombs exploded in the yard of an empty kindergarten, and its walls were damaged by shrapnel, a Reuters photographer said.

"No country in the world would or should accept such threats to its civilian population. Neither do we," Emmanuel Nahshon, an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, wrote on Twitter.

Organizers of the Palestinian border protests said they would ramp up demonstrations on Tuesday by launching a boat from Gaza in a challenge to Israel's maritime blockade of the enclave.

More than 2 million Palestinians are packed into the narrow coastal enclave. Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from Gaza in 2005 but, citing security concerns, maintains tight control of its land and sea borders, which has reduced its economy to a state of collapse.

Egypt also restricts movement in and out of Gaza on its border.

Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians have been stalled since 2014 and Israeli settlements in occupied territory Palestinians seek for a state have expanded.</s>JERUSALEM — Israeli jets bombed Gaza hours after militants from the territory on Tuesday fired more than 25 mortar shells toward communities in southern Israel in what appeared to be the largest single barrage since the 2014 Israel-Hamas war.

The Israeli military said no one was hurt and that most of the mortar shells were intercepted by the Iron Dome defence system, though one of the shells landed near a kindergarten shortly before it opened.

The high volume of projectiles came as tensions have been running high along the Israel-Gaza border and a fierce Israeli response was expected.

“Israel will exact a heavy price from those who seek to harm it and we see Hamas as responsible for preventing such attacks,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said following the barrage.

Shortly after that warning, Israeli jets began dropping bombs at what security officials in Gaza called Islamic Jihad militant training site. Smoke was seen rising near the town of Deir al-Balah in the coastal strip and the Israeli military said the explosions there were related to its activity. No injuries were reported.

Islamic Jihad was believed to be behind the attacks with a green light from Hamas, the militant Islamic group that runs the Gaza Strip.

“We are sticking to the right of return as well as responding to the Zionist crimes,” said Khaled al-Batsh, an Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza.

Ismail Radwan, a Hamas official, said the barrage proved that the “resistance is capable of hurting the occupation and it proved this today by responding to its crimes.”

Radwan spoke as a two fishing boats carrying students and medical patients set sail out of Gaza City’s port, aiming to break 11 years of naval blockade that Egypt and Israel imposed after the militants violently took control of the coastal territory.

The expedition would be a new way of challenging the blockade but also raises the possibility of more confrontation and violence as Israel bars any boats from Gaza reaching farther out than a six-nautical-mile radius into the Mediterranean Sea. Hamas acknowledged it was mostly a symbolic act.

It also marks eight years since Israeli commandos raided a Gaza-bound aid flotilla, killing nine pro-Palestinian Turks and sparking an international outcry against the blockade.

In southern Israel, angry residents complained about how vulnerable they felt after 15 years of rocket fire threats from neighbouring Gaza, which will likely put pressure on the government to retaliate harshly.

Adva Klein, a resident of Kibbutz Kfar Aza, said she only got about two hours of sleep because of the frequent incoming fire and the sirens warning of them. Other residents reported machine-gun fire from Gaza as well.

“It’s been a really scary morning,” said Adele Raemer, a resident of Kibbutz Nirim.

Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said he was convening the top military brass at his Tel Aviv headquarters to discuss the situation.

The border area has been tense in recent weeks as the Palestinians have held mass protests aimed at lifting a blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas seized power in 2007.

Israeli fire has killed more than 110 Palestinians, most of them during the Hamas-led protests, which climaxed on May 14.

On Sunday, Israeli shelling killed three Palestinian militants from the smaller Islamic Jihad group after the troops found a bomb planted along the border. The Islamic Jihad vowed retaliation.

On Monday, a tank fired at a Hamas position in the Gaza Strip, killing one man and wounding another, after Israeli troops came under fire on the frontier while apprehending two armed Palestinians.

Hamas has vowed to continue the border rallies. Israel says it is defending its border as well as its communities nearby. It accuses Hamas of trying to carry out attacks under the cover of protests.



 Associated Press writer Fares Akram in Gaza City, Gaza Strip, contributed to this report.
Palestinian militants in Gaza fire dozens of mortars at Israel in the heaviest such barrage in years. The Israeli Air Force responds with airstrikes on militant positions.