A Palestinian boy and his sister were killed in Gaza yesterday when they were hit by fragments from a missile fired by an Israeli aircraft, medical officials said.
The incident took place hours after resistance fighters launched rockets into Israel.
An Israeli military statement claimed aircraft had targeted four “training camps” belonging to Hamas after four missiles landed in open areas in southern Israel on Friday night. No casualties were reported from the rocket strikes.
Residents of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip said Yassin Abu Khoussa, 10, died after debris from the explosion hit his home, which is situated next to a “training camp”.
His six-year-old sister, Israa, who was seriously wounded, later died in hospital, Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said.
Senior Hamas official Ismael Radwan called the Israeli strikes “an escalation” and placed “full responsibility” on the Jewish state.
“The blood of the children killed in the zionist raid will not flow in vain,” the movement’s military wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, warned in a statement.
Our “patience with the attacks of the enemy has its limits”, it added.
The fatalities from air strikes in Gaza were the first since last October. The Israeli army said that since the beginning of the year and including Friday’s salvo, seven rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel.
Gaza rocket fire has tapered off significantly since the 2014 war when resistance groups fired thousands of rockets and mortar rounds into Israel. Israeli attacks killed more than 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, while Palestinian fighters killed six Israeli civilians and 67 soldiers.
Meanwhile,  Israeli boats have bombarded several Palestinian fishing boats near the Sudaniyya shore, northwest of Gaza City. Palestinian News Agency quoted sources in the Gaza Strip as saying that Israeli navy had fired a number of artillery shells at the fishing boats sailing on the four nautical miles off Sudaniyya damaging three boats.
The fishermen were forced to leave the sea due to heavy firing.