Gaza-Israel violence enters 4th day
By the CNN Wire Staff
March 12, 2012 -- Updated 1414 GMT (2214 HKT)
Gaza City (CNN) -- Five people were killed Monday in Gaza, the latest deaths in days of airstrikes that marked the worst escalation of violence in the coastal territory in months, Palestinian officials said.
Israel has said its airstrikes have targeted militant rocket launching sites across the Palestinian territory in response to more than 100 rocket attacks from Gaza into Israel since Friday.
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At least 23 people have been killed in strikes since Friday, while at least 75 people have been wounded.
Three civilians and two militants were killed in what Palestinian medical officials said were Israeli airstrikes Monday.
A civilian was killed and three others were injured Monday afternoon in the northern Gaza neighborhood of Beit Lahia, Palestinian officials said. The Israeli military had no immediate information on that incident.
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Israeli and Palestinian officials offered conflicting accounts of another blast Monday that killed a 15-year-old boy in Gaza.
Palestinian medical and security sources said an Israeli airstrike killed the teen, but the Israeli military said it did not attack the area where the death was reported.
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"We did not attack during those hours of the morning in the northern Gaza strip," Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich told CNN, saying that Israeli military activity during the time was focused on southern Gaza.
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"One of the possibilities is that one of the terrorist organizations in Gaza fired a rocket that landed inside Gaza," Leibovich said, noting that some two dozen rockets fired by Palestinians militants in the last four days have landed inside Gaza.
Two militants also were killed in overnight airstrikes in southern Gaza, Palestinian officials said, and 40 people were injured.
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The fighting is the worst outbreak of violence in Gaza this year and comes as Israel and the world's attention has been largely focused on Iran and Syria.
A spokesman for the militant group Islamic Jihad warned Israeli citizens Monday to stay in their bunkers, vowing the group would fire more rockets into southern Israel.
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Speaking at a press conference Monday in Gaza City, Abu Ahmed boasted his group had fired dozens of longer-range Grad rockets into Israel and a larger number of smaller short-range rockets.
Ahmed said Islamic Jihad would not enter a cease-fire agreement with Israel until it paid the price for its aggression.
Since Friday, eight Israelis have been wounded and 500,000 have been forced into shelters, Israeli military and emergency services said. More than 200,000 children are being kept home from school as a safety precaution, according Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld.
At least 15 rockets and mortars were fired Monday, Rosenfeld said. There were no reports of injuries.
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Defense Minister Ehud Barak defended Israel's response to rocket attacks.
"We remain determined to protect and defend our citizens," Barak said Monday. "If the attacks continue, we will continue to respond. It takes patience and resilience to overcome these challenges, but we are determined and we will be ready to defend our civilians at any moment."
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A spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces said Monday's strikes targeted a weapons storage facility and rocket launching sites in Gaza.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested Sunday that the new cycle of attacks and counterattacks resulted from a successful Israeli strike on "an arch-terrorist who organized many attacks against the state of Israel."
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"Naturally, this led to another round with the Popular Resistance Committees, Islamic Jihad and other groups," Netanyahu said, naming Palestinian militant groups.
Israel's military "is striking at them in strength," Netanyahu said. "We have exacted from them a very high price; naturally, we will act as necessary."
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Palestinian factions met Sunday to discuss the possibility of a truce, according to a spokesman for the Salah Edeen Brigades, one of the militant factions. Hamas leadership in Gaza and Egyptian officials were working to try to bring about a truce, said the spokesman, who goes by the name Abu Muhamad.
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However, Islamic Jihad rejected the possibility of a truce until certain conditions are met, including an end to the airstrikes and "targeted assassinations," according to the militant group's official radio station.
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman said Israel makes its "best effort to target terrorists and not the civilian population," but added: "We will not accept the constant disruption of life in the south of Israel, and I advise all heads of terror to think well about their actions."
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He blamed Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist movement that runs Gaza, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas for the violence.
"Abbas must decide if he wants to conduct serious negotiations for peace or align himself with Hamas and Islamic Jihad and become a part of the map of world terror," Liberman said.
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He was referring to ongoing talks between Abbas' Fatah faction and Hamas, aimed at forming a new Palestinian unity government. The two factions have been bitter rivals since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.
Both sides sent letters Sunday to the U.N. Security Council, calling for an end to the violence.
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CNN's Talal Abu Rahma, Guy Azriel, Kevin Flower, Kareem Khadder and Josh Levs contributed to this report.
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