JERUSALEM — Israeli aircraft struck Saturday at Palestinian militants who responded with a volley of rockets that rained on southern Israeli towns, Israeli and Palestinian officials said.
Palestinian officials said nine militants were killed, while on the Israeli side one civilian was killed and four others were wounded.
Exchanges of fire are common between southern Israel and the Gaza strip controlled by the militant Hamas group, but this is the worst one in months.
Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Adham Abu Salmia said nine people were killed and 15 wounded in separate attacks on militant targets.
Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said one Israeli civilian was killed and four others wounded when Palestinian rockets exploded in residential areas in southern Israel.
An Israeli military spokesman confirmed four strikes in Gaza, saying the military hit Palestinian militants from the Islamic Jihad, one of several groups in Gaza that fire rockets into southern Israel.
The spokesman said that the first attack specifically targeted a cell responsible for a Wednesday rocket attack that exploded deep inside Israel. That attack had caused no casualties.
The military “will not tolerate any attempt to harm Israeli civilians,” the spokesman said. He spoke on condition of anonymity in accordance with military protocols.
After the first airstrike, militants in Gaza fired more than 20 rockets at southern Israel, Israeli police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said.
In a text message to reporters, Islamic Jihad took responsibility for firing the rockets and released photos of the rockets being launched from the backs of pickups. The group said this is the first time it has used this system as opposed to firing the rockets from launchers on the ground.
Israel’s Channel 2 television reported that one rocket hit a school, causing extensive damage. No one was hurt because the school was closed for the Jewish Sabbath, Ashdod Mayor Yehiel Lasri said.
Late Saturday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu phoned the mayors of cities hit by Palestinian rockets. Netanyahu said the military had hit rocket launcher squads responsible for the attacks and said “the military’s response will be tougher if needed.”
Islamic Jihad frequently fires rockets at southern Israel cities, prompting Israeli reprisal strikes.
Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Ahmed had earlier confirmed that one of its localfield commanders, Ahmed Sheikh Khalil, was killed. He said Khalil was one of the group’s chief bomb makers. “Today it was a great loss for us in the Islamic Jihad,” he said. “The size of our retaliation will equal our loss,” it said in a text message sent to reporters.
“Our response shall be in the depths of the Zionist entity,” it said in reference to the Israeli heartland.
The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad took responsibility for multiple suicide bombings and shooting attacks against civilians in Israel during the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in the first half of the last decade.
Israel and Hamas blamed each other for the flare-up in violence Saturday.
“The Hamas terror organization is solely responsible for any terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip,” the Israeli military said.
Israel as a matter of policy holds Hamas liable for violence perpetrated by any of the armed groups in the coastal territory.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum, meanwhile, said Israel is “fully responsible for all the results of this dangerous escalation.”
In the winter of 2008, Israel launched a broad military offensive inside Gaza aimed at stopping almost daily Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli communities.
Since then, violence has continued sporadically along the border and Palestinians continue to launch mortar shells and rockets at Israel, but to a much lesser degree.
On Wednesday, militants fired a long-range Katyusha rocket that exploded near Ashdod in the country’s south.
Sirens also went off in the central Israeli city of Rehovot, which unlike many southern Israeli cities is not accustomed to rocket fire, causing panic. The Israeli military said the alarm went off because the rocket exploded in an area between the two cities.
Information for this article was contributed by Ibrahim Barzak of The Associated Press.
Front Section, Pages 12 on 10/30/2011