Baby, mother killed as hostilities flare up after rocket attacks from Gaza to Israel

Gaza militants shot out dozens of rockets into Israel on Saturday, drawing a wave of Israeli air strikes that killed a Palestinian baby and a gunman, as hostilities flared across the border for a second day.

According to BBC, the escalation began on Friday when a sniper from the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group fired at Israeli troops across the border wounding two of them while a retaliatory Israeli air strike then killed two militants from the Islamist Hamas group that rules Gaza.

BBC also learnt that Israeli fire killed a mother and her baby daughter but Israel said the mother and baby were killed by a Palestinian rocket that fell short of its target.

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“According to indications the baby and her mother died as a result of the terrorist activities of Palestinian saboteurs and not as a result of an Israeli strike,” tweeted Lieutenant Colonel in the Israel Defense Forces, Avichay Adraee, without giving further details.

It was gathered that an Israeli man died early on Sunday in Ashkelon, six miles north of Gaza, after being wounded by shrapnel when a rocket hit his house while a number of homes in parts of Israel bordering the Gaza Strip have been hit.

Israeli military spokesman Lieutenant-Colonel Jonathan Conricus said Israel was prepared to intensify its attacks. He added that Islamic Jihad was trying to destabilize the border and blamed Hamas for failing to lead it in.

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