Gaza, February 28: A Palestinian was killed Sunday when an Israeli tank opened fire on a group of fighters east of Gaza City, medical sources and witnesses said.
Spokesmen for the Islamic Jihad group said the dead man belonged to their organization.
The witnesses said the tank on the Israeli side of the border opened fire on the group, amid rising tensions following rocket and mortar attacks on Israel and air raids launched in reprisal.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli military denied there had been “any attack” by Israel’s forces against Gaza Sunday.
Earlier in the day, a rocket and mortar round were fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, with neither projectile causing casualties or damage, a military spokeswoman said.
Those attacks followed a string of Israeli air raids targeting militant training camps across the Palestinian enclave Saturday night.
One airstrike wounded four people, including a toddler, Palestinian officials and medics said.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said Sunday that Israel’s alert level had been raised in response to the renewed rocket fire and regional instability.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli military said Sunday’s early morning rocket attack hit a field in the Eshkol region of southern Israel.
It was followed by a second attack later in the day when “a mortar round exploded in the Sdot Negev area north of the Gaza Strip,” again without causing casualties or damage.
A first set of airstrikes Saturday hit two Islamic Jihad camps, while a second raid targeted two camps belonging to the Ezzedine al-Qassem Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, in the southern city of Rafah.
It was during the second raid that the four people, including the child, were wounded, Palestinian officials and medics said.
A third airstrike blasted an Islamic Jihad facility west of Khan Younis, witnesses said.
Hamas said in a statement Sunday it wanted to avoid a new test of force with Israel.
“We are determined to continue a policy of national consensus with all the Palestinian factions,” Hamas said in a reference to instructions to observe a cease-fire.
Rosenfeld said Sunday Israel’s alert level had been heightened. “The police examined the security situation and decided to raise the alert level on Israeli territory for a week,” he said.
“The security examination was undertaken after the new Palestinian rocket fire Sunday and because of the continued unrest in the Arab and Muslim world.”
——–Agencies