Rocket barrages from Gaza draw Israeli strikes

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01:53

Gaza militants on Saturday fired some 250 rockets at Israel, which responded with strikes as a fragile ceasefire again faltered in an escalation that left four Palestinians dead, including a baby in disputed circumstances.

The latest flare-up came with Hamas, the Islamist movement that rules the blockaded Gaza Strip, seeking further concessions from Israel under the ceasefire.

Israel said around 250 rockets were fired from the Palestinian enclave and its air defenses intercepted dozens of them.

One woman was seriously injured in a rocket strike on the Israeli city of Kiryat Gat, some 20 kilometers (13 miles) from the Gaza border, police said.

An Israeli surveys the damage to a house near the port city of Ashkelon from one of the barrages of rockets fired from Gaza. /AFP Photo

Police said a man was also hospitalized in the city of Ashkelon and spoke of other injuries without providing details.

Medics said the woman was 80 and the man was 50.

A house near Ashkelon was damaged while other rockets hit open areas.

The Israeli army said its tanks and planes hit some 120 militant targets in its response.

They included an Islamic Jihad attack tunnel that stretched from southern Gaza into Israeli territory, military spokesman Jonathan Conricus said.

Two multi-story buildings in Gaza City were destroyed, residents said.

Smoke rises in the Israeli side, near the border with Gaza following a rocket attack, seen from Israel, May 4, 2019. /Reuters Photo

Israel said one of the buildings included Hamas military intelligence and security offices.

Turkey said an office for its state news agency Anadolu was located in the building and strongly condemned the strike.

The Gaza health ministry reported a 14-month-old baby and her pregnant mother in addition to two Palestinian men were killed in Israeli strikes, while 40 were wounded.

It was not immediately clear if the two men were affiliated with militant groups.

A man looks on inside a damaged house after it was hit by a rocket, fired from Gaza over the border, to the Israeli side in Kiryat Gat, Israel, May 4, 2019. /Reuters Photo

Israeli army spokesman Avichay Adraee on Twitter challenged the account of the mother and her baby being killed in an Israeli strike, suggesting they may have died from Palestinian fire.

Adraee did not provide more details and the army refused to comment further.

Israel and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip have fought three wars since 2008 and fears remain of a fourth.

A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas brokered by Egypt and the United Nations had led to relative calm around Israel's April 9 general election.

But the past week saw a gradual uptick in violence.

With the ceasefire at risk, a Hamas delegation led by its Gaza's head Yahya Sinwar went to Cairo on Thursday for talks with Egyptian officials.

The ceasefire has seen Israel allow Qatar to provide millions of dollars in aid to Gaza to pay salaries and to finance fuel purchases to ease a severe electricity shortage.

(Cover: Smoke billows over Gaza City after Israel carries out an air strike in response to a barrage of rockets fired by Palestinian militants, May 4, 2019. /AFP Photo)

(With input from AFP)