Israel has launched a new airstrike on the Gaza Strip, killing one Palestinian and injuring two others, witnesses say.

"Israeli forces made a brief incursion this evening east of Gaza City," a Press TV correspondent reported on Sunday, adding that Israeli fighter jets fired rockets at Palestinians, killing one and injuring two others.

Tel Aviv has escalated its ground and airstrikes on the besieged territory, killing civilians and destroying properties.

On Saturday, Israeli warplanes targeted the Gaza Strip by bombarding two sites, injuring at least four people, including a toddler, Palestinian sources said.

An Israeli unmanned plane on Thursday launched a missile attack on the southern Gaza Strip, inflicting injuries on six Palestinians.

The drone strike hit a vehicle that was travelling in the southern city of Rafah along the coastal sliver’s border with Egypt.

In June 2007, Israel and Egypt placed the territory under siege and imposed an unprecedented blockade on nearly all movement and supplies in and out of the coastal strip.

Poverty, unemployment, lack of medicine and medical equipment are the main issues in the Gaza Strip, while most Palestinian children are physically stunted from malnutrition.

The United Nations has repeatedly warned of a humanitarian crisis for Gaza’s 1.5 million residents.

Human rights groups have also criticized the international community for its silence on the siege on Gaza and the 22-day Israeli war in December 2008 that shattered the stagnant economy of the territory.

The offensive killed more than 1,400 Gazans and inflicted a damage of above $1.6 billion on the territory’s economy.

(Press TV)