Israeli air strike kills Gaza gunman on motorbike
Rocket fired from Gaza into Israeli, on one hurt: police
Israeli aircraft killed a Palestinian gunman and wounded another as they rode a motorcycle in the southern Gaza Strip on Wednesday, medical officials said.
Israel's military confirmed carrying out dawn strike, saying it targeted Palestinians who had launched a short-range rocket across the border on Tuesday. No one was hurt in that attack, which followed a surge in fighting around Gaza this month.
Islamic Jihad, a Palestinian faction that has played a leading role in the violence and is an occasional ally of Gaza's Hamas rulers, claimed the dead man and his comrade as its own.
They had been driving to mosque prayers when they were struck on the road from Khan Younis to Rafah in south Gaza, Islamic Jihad said in a statement.
With Israel threatening a wider assault on Gaza in response to the recent rocket salvos, Hamas on Saturday offered a truce. But exchanges of fire between Israel and Islamic Jihad have persisted.
Earlier on Wednesday, Israel's air force bombed a smuggling tunnel used by Palestinians to circumvent a blockade on Gaza's border with Egypt, witnesses said.
Rocket from Gaza
A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip exploded in southern Israel late Tuesday, but caused no casualties having landed in a field, an Israeli police spokesman said.
This latest incident came two days after an Israeli air strike killed two Gaza fighters. Islamic Jihad's armed wing, the al-Quds Brigade, who said the victims were their men, threatened on Sunday to respond.
Gaza's Hamas rulers later issued a statement repeating a call for calm agreed with Islamic Jihad and other factions at a meeting a day earlier.
Last Friday, Netanyahu said Israel was ready to act with "great force" in response to rocket and mortar attacks. But Israel's leaders have appeared reluctant to be dragged into another bloody war with Hamas, especially as they lack international support for any new offensive on Gaza.
Reacting to persistent attacks from Gaza, Israel launched a three-week assault on the strip over New Year, 2009, in which some 1,400 Palestinians and 13 Israelis died.