Gaza-Israel violence escalates

Another round of violence in Gaza escalated Tuesday, with Hamas firing rockets for the first time in more than a year and Israel launching six airstrikes in two days, DPA reported.

Six Palestinians, including two teenagers whose bodies were found early Tuesday, were killed in airstrikes in the strip Monday.

Meanwhile, two militants killed in a gunbattle on the Israeli-Egyptian border on Monday were identified in images circulating on Facebook as a Saudi and an Egyptian national linked to al-Qaeda.

It was not immediately possible to verify their authenticity.

One photograph showed two bearded men in military uniforms and with AK-47 semi-automatic rifles standing in front of an al-Qaeda flag with the words "There is no God but one God, Allah, and the prophet Mohammed is his messenger."

Their names were given as Khaled Jaddallah, from Egypt's Marsa Matrouh province, and Odai al-Hudeili, from Jeddah.

The armed wing of Hamas, the radical Islamist movement which seized control of Gaza in 2007, said it launched 16 missiles at Israel in under 12 hours on Tuesday.

The Qassam Brigades said it fired three volleys, one before dawn and two more in the afternoon, at an Israeli army base, Zikim, north of the enclave, and an Israeli community, Ra'im, near the central Gaza Strip.

They fell in open fields and caused no injuries. Local Israeli residents were told to stay indoors in fortified rooms. The last time Hamas took responsibility for mortar fire into Israel was in April 2011, during another round of violence which saw several high-ranking Hamas members killed.

The volleys came after one of four Palestinian militants killed in two Israeli airstrikes in northern Gaza on Monday afternoon was identified as a Hamas fighter.

Jihad Abu Shabab, 23, was one of the Qassam Brigades' best snipers, local Gaza residents said.

At lest 11 Palestinians were also injured in the latest round of violence, which began early Monday, when Israel launched two airstrikes at a metal workshop which it said was manufacturing weapons, and at a Hamas training site.

The airstrikes were a routine response to ongoing sporadic rocket fire by smaller militant factions.

The teenagers, whose bodies were found near the central Gaza Strip border with Israel early Tuesday, had been killed in an airstrike shortly after midnight.

Israel said it spotted them handling an explosive device near the border fence, east of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza.

But a Palestinian health official said they were both aged 16 and denied they belonged to any armed faction. Hamas' Aqsa TV station put their ages at 17 and 18.

On Tuesday afternoon, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a motorcycle, also east of Deir al-Balah, seriously injuring its driver. Israel said he had been involved in the rocket fire of the past few hours.

Gaza, although relatively calm since a deadly and destructive three-week Israeli offensive in early 2009, has seen periodic resurges of violence.

Smaller militant groups including the Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) have continued sporadic attacks, sparking Israeli retaliatory airstrikes.

But Hamas has mostly refrained from participating in the rocket and mortar fire, wary of a second Israeli offensive and eager to consolidate its power in the strip.

The last round of violence, in which Hamas did not participate, was in mid-March. Each round, sending residents of southern Israel into bomb shelters, sparks louder calls by Israeli right-wing politicians for a second offensive in Gaza.