Smoke rises after an Israeli airstrike in Gaza City, May 4, 2019. (Xinhua/Stringer)
GAZA, May 4 (Xinhua) -- Israeli army warplanes, drones and artillery continued on Saturday afternoon striking on militants facilities in the Gaza Strip in response to firing barrages of rockets from the coastal enclave into Israel, Israeli and Palestinian media reported.
One Palestinian was killed and seven were moderately wounded in the Israeli airstrikes that were waged on various military facilities all over the Gaza Strip, said Gaza Health Ministry.
It was unclear if the casualties were militants or civilians.
An Israeli army spokesman said in a press statement that Israeli Army air forces warplanes struck with missiles more than ten targets that belong to the Islamic Hamas movement and the Islamic Jihad militants in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier on Saturday, the Joint Chamber of Military Operations, which comprises the armed wings of Palestinian factions, including Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, fired dozens of rockets from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
Firing the rockets from the coastal enclave into southern Israel, according to the Joint Chamber of Military Operations, was a response to Israeli killing of four Palestinians and wounded 51 others on Friday in eastern Gaza Strip close to the border with Israel.
Gaza Health Ministry Spokesman Ashraf al-Qedra said on Friday that the Israeli army shot and killed two Palestinian demonstrators and wounded 51 others during their participation in the weekly anti-Israel rallies and protests, better known as the Great March of Return and Breaking the Israeli siege.
Two other Palestinians were killed in an Israeli airstrike on Friday evening, he added.
The Israeli airstrike on a Hamas military training facility on Friday evening was a response to a shooting attack carried out by Palestinian gunmen, where two Israeli soldiers, stationed on the border with the Gaza Strip, were injured.
The escalation between Israel and the Palestinians have been taking place while two delegations representing Hamas and the Islamic Jihad have been holding talks in Cairo since Thursday over restoring calm in the Gaza Strip.
