Nine dead after Israeli raids on Gaza—medical sources

GAZA CITY –  The death toll from Israeli air raids on the Gaza Strip rose to nine after two more bodies were found, Palestinian medical sources said Sunday.

Saturday’s air strikes were already known to have killed seven members of the Islamic Jihad group, Palestinian emergency services said, while an Israeli had been killed in a barrage of rocket fire subsequently fired from Gaza.

On Saturday, Adham Abu Selmiya, spokesman for Gaza’s emergency services, said five members of the Al-Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihad’s armed wing, had been killed and three critically wounded in the first of the attacks.

As the tit-for-tat fighting continued into the night, Israeli aircraft struck five more targets in Gaza, witnesses and Palestinian officials said, killing two more militants and bringing the total to seven.

Another two were wounded — allegedly as they were preparing to fire a missile near Rafah, in the south of the Gaza Strip.

A statement released by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said he had phoned the mayors of Ashkelin, Ashdod and Beersheeva in southern Israel, all targets of the rocket fire from Gaza.

He had told them that the military’s “tough response will be even tougher if necessary”, said the statement.