Adel Hana / AP
A Palestinian firefighter tries to extinguish a fire following an Israeli air strike in Gaza City, early Saturday.
GAZA — Israel launched air raids on Hamas security targets in Gaza on Saturday, reportedly killing at least two Palestinians and injuring at least 21 others, including four children.
The raids were launched after militants in Gaza stepped up rocket attacks, wounding an Israeli man.
The escalating violence threatened to unravel Wednesday’s shaky Egyptian-brokered truce which had temporarily calmed violence that erupted on Monday after a raid across Egypt’s Sinai border in which an Israeli man and two gunmen were killed.
The Israeli Defense Force said in a statement that it had “targeted a terrorist squad during preparations to fire a rocket at Israel from the central Gaza Strip” Friday, according to BBC News.
The BBC said that attacked killed a man called Bazel Ahmed and that a second air strike killed an 18-year-old, who the IDF said had been part of a group firing rockets.
Hamas: Boy, 6, dies
Hamas medical officials said a third Israeli air raid killed a six-year-old boy at a soccer field near the town of Khan Younis, and wounded two other people. They said a baby was wounded in a separate attack in Rafah, at the Egypt border.
An Israeli military spokeswoman, commenting on the boy’s death, said: “an initial examination shows the military was not involved in this incident.” She had no immediate comment on the report about the baby.
At least two killed in attack on Israel-Egypt border
The Israeli strikes were reported after the worst rocket assault in six days of fighting. One projectile slammed into the Israeli town of Sderot wounding an Israeli man in the neck just as he was trying to enter a concrete shelter.
The rocket was one of more than 50 fired into Israel, nearly 10 times the number fired on Friday, the military said. At least six other rockets were intercepted by an Israeli missile defense system.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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