Israeli planes continue air-strikes in Gaza

Palestinians carry the body of Bahjat Al-Zalan, who was killed in Israeli air strike Israeli Air Force (IAF) jets attacked the souhern Gaza Strip in response to 12 rockets fired into Israel on Friday. Several hours later, four Qassam rockets hit Eshkol and Hof Ashkelon regional councils; no injuries or damage were reported Four Qassam rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip on Saturday morning, hitting open areas in the Eshkol and Hof Ashkelon regional councils No casulaties were reported
The military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees claimed responsibility for three of the rockets fired into Israel in the morning hours.
The rockets were fired several hours after IAF jets attacked a terror target in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday night. According to the Israel Defence Forces Spokesperson's Office, the target was accurately hit. No additional details were available.
IDF Chief of Staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz called on top army officials to evaluate the security situation as rockets continued to bombard southern Israeli communities Friday.
Around 10 pm, three rockets exploded in open areas near Sderot and in the Eshkol and Hof Ashkelon regional councils, bringing the total of rockets fired into Israel on Friday to a total of 12.
Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Yair Naveh and GOC Southern Command Tal Russo attended the meeting, as well as air force and naval commanders.
Israeli army officials estimated that the Strip's two dominant organisations, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, are keeping a low profile in the latest round of fire in order to avoid escalating the violence further. Instead, the smaller groups, including the Popular Resistance Committees and Fatah Al-Islam – whose two members were killed in an IAF strike Thursday – are responsible for the attacks.
Armed groups shelled Israeli targets Friday in response to deadly airstrikes that killed two operatives a day earlier, members of a Fatah-linked group said.
The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades said it fired three "Aqsa missiles" at Ashkelon following the assassination of a member of the group along with one other Hamas-affiliated operative in central Gaza.
The brigades also said it fired three missiles toward the Shaar Hanegev regional council on Thursday in response to Israel's "aggression" which accelerated over the past 24 hours.
Earlier, Israeli airstrikes killed a man in central Gaza and injured 13 members of his family, medical officials said. A Ma’an correspondent said warplanes struck a site used by Hamas' armed wing northwest of Gaza City.
The strike caused severe damage to the house of the al-Zaalan family. Medical spokesman in Gaza Adham Abu Salmiya said the raid killed Bahjat al-Zaalan, 38, and injured 13 from his family, including 7 children. Two of Bahjat’s children are seriously injured, and a 57-year-old man was moderately injured, he said.
An Israeli army statement said planes "targeted two terror activity sites."
Later, a military spokeswoman said "additional explosions were caused by rockets near the targeted site, and the (army) regrets that non combatants were harmed during the course of this incident," but said it holds Hamas accountable for operating in a residential area.
Israeli army officials noted that while in past rounds of violence the Iron Dome missile defence systems protected only large population centers like Beersheba, Ashdod and Ashkelon, this time the system's coverage extends to a larger area, due to a third battery that was placed in the region after undergoing repairs.
The system intercepted one rocket that was fired towards Ashdod on Friday afternoon, while another exploded in the nearby Beer Tuvia Regional Council. Friday's barrage began in the morning with a Qassam exploding in the Shaar Hanegev Regional Council, and continued throughout the day, hitting open areas in the Hof Ashkelon and Eshkol regional councils, as well as near Sderot. No injuries or damage were reported.  
Five rockets hit the southern region on Thursday evening. Overnight, The IDF carried out a strike against two targets in the Gaza Strip, which Palestinian reports claim left one person dead.
Gaza sources said that a Hamas training camp near Gaza city was hit in the strike and that shrapnel hit nearby residential buildings. One person was killed and 25 others, mostly women and children, were wounded as a result.
Israeli army planes launched a strike at a “terror-affiliated site” in the southern Gaza Strip Saturday, the military said, after 12 rockets were fired from Gaza at Israel the previous day.
A statement from the military said direct hits were confirmed in the air strike. Gaza medics reported no casualties from the attack, which was at a Kassam training camp.
On Friday, a Palestinian father and his 12-year-old son were killed and 10 other civilians hurt in an Israeli air raid at a militant training ground that caused a nearby house to collapse. Following the Israeli attack, Gaza militants fired 12 rockets at southern Israel. None of the rockets caused casualties or damage.
The Israeli army expressed regret that civilians were hurt but blamed Gaza’s Hamas rulers for operating within residential areas. It said the Friday strikes were in response to five rockets fired Thursday night on southern Israel, none of which had caused casualties or damage.
The rockets were in turn retaliation for an Israeli air raid earlier in the day that had targeted a car in Gaza City, killing two militants and wounding another four people.
Israel frequently targets militants it says are about to fire rockets over the border, or attacks Gaza in response to such rocket fire. It also carries out targeted attacks against specific militants.
Palestinian militants stepped up rocket attacks as night fell. Three groups said they had fired more than a dozen projectiles across the border. Israel police said at least ten of them landed in Israeli territory, causing no casualties.
Witnesses in Gaza reported heavy activity of Israeli drones over head.
Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas administration in Gaza, told reporters the group was “pursuing intensive contacts with several Arab and international parties, and we stress the necessity of this aggression being stopped immediately”.
Hamas spurns peacemaking with the Jewish state but has in the past proposed truces as it sought to consolidate control over Gaza and negotiate power-sharing with the rival, US-backed Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Earlier on Friday, the United States said its Middle East peace envoy would head back to the region next week in the latest bid to restart long-stalled talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
US special envoy David Hale and other representatives of the so-called Quartet on Middle East peace will meet separately Tuesday with Israeli and Palestinian officials, State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.
Hale will afterward travel to Cairo and Paris for further consultations.
The trip is part of “our effort to get the two parties to put forward concrete proposals and to agree to come back to the table together,” Nuland said.
The Quartet – composed of the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia – laid out a proposal in September aimed at reaching a peace agreement in a year.But there has been no visible sign of progress, with the Palestinians urging Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to halt Jewish settlements on Palestinian land before a resumption of peace talks.
Israel on Wednesday approved a new 14-home project in the heart of a Palestinian neighborhood in annexed east Jerusalem, leading the Palestinians to threaten again to take the row to the U.N. Security Council.
The United States vetoed a resolution on settlements in February and has championed the Quartet plan after Mahmoud Abbas sought the U.N. nod for full membership as a state.