Israel says it would not stop short of taking any military action against the Gaza Strip after an Israeli fanfare alleged that firing of projectiles came ‘from the coastal sliver’s direction.’

“We will not shy away from taking all the necessary action, offensive and defensive, to protect our country and to protect our citizens," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday, Reuters reported.

Claiming to be responding to attacks from Gaza-based locations, the Israeli military assaulted several areas across the enclave, killing three Palestinians and injuring around 34 others.

One of the wounded has been described as a four-year-old girl. Eight received injuries after shell fragments hit an ambulance.

The Tel Aviv regime has been recurrently bombarding Gaza ever since its 22-day war on the impoverished enclave in December 2008 and January 2009, which killed more than 1,400 Palestinians and inflicted a damage of $1.6 billion on the region’s already-stagnant economy.

The offensives are often launched under the usual pretext of responding to the purported firing of projectiles.

The Israeli hostility rages on while Tel Aviv refuses to lift an all-out blockade it imposed on Gaza in mid-June 2007 in cooperation with the recently ousted regime of Egyptian dictator Hosni Mubarak.

The siege has deprived the Gaza population of food, fuel and medicine, triggering stunted growth and malnutrition among most Palestinian children.

(Press TV)