An Israeli air strike has killed one Palestinian and wounded two others, including a child, in the Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical sources said.
Sheikh Hisham al-Saedini, 43, also known as Abu al-Waleed al-Maqdisi, one of the founding members of Salafist group the Mujahedeen Shura Council, was killed in a strike late on Saturday on the north Gaza town of Jabaliya, Palestinian security sources said.
Fellow Salafist activist Fayek Abu Jazar, 42, died with him as they rode a motorbike. Two other people, one of them a 12-year-old boy, were wounded.
The Israeli military spokesperson confirmed the attack, saying the Mujahedeen Shura Council was "responsible for terrorist activities".
Following the fatal strike, the air force also hit a training camp in Gaza City of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, which controls the strip, Palestinian sources said. No casualties were reported.
Earlier on Saturday, the air force hit three targets in Gaza, hours after a rocket fired from the territory exploded near a house in southern Israel, sources on both sides said.
"Aircraft targeted a terror activity site in the northern Gaza Strip, and two terror activity sites in the central Gaza Strip. Direct hits were confirmed," a statement from the Israeli military said.
"The sites were targeted in response to the rocket fire towards southern Israel."
Palestinian security officials said there were no casualties from the strikes, one of which hit an unmanned training camp of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades south of Gaza City.
They said the other two hit open ground near the Nusseirat and Al-Bureij refugee camps in central Gaza, possibly used as rocket launch sites.
On Friday night, a Grad rocket fired from Gaza exploded in the yard of a residential building in the southern Israeli town of Netivot, causing no injuries.
The Mujahedeen Shura Council issued a statement saying it fired the rocket on Netivot.
There has been a flurry of tit-for-tat violence on the Gaza-Israel border in recent days.
On Thursday, Israeli warplanes raided a training camp of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, several hours after two rockets were fired into southern Israel from Gaza.
On Wednesday the Israeli air force struck targets in northern Gaza. The strikes came after rocket fire that was also claimed by the Mujahedeen Shura Council.
Earlier in the week, the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad launched a barrage of fire at southern Israel a day after warplanes raided the southern city of Rafah, causing casualties.
Monday’s rocket fire by Hamas and Islamic Jihad marked a rare show of force given that the two groups normally observe a de facto truce on rocket fire on Israel.
The last time Hamas fired on Israel was during a flare-up in June. More than 150 rockets were fired at Israel, wounding five people. Israel hit back with air strikes that killed 15 Palestinians.
(Agencies via Al Jazeera)
