Nine Palestinians and one Israeli were killed over the weekend, in an escalation of violence in Gaza and southern Israel, officials from both sides reported Sunday.
The violence started on Wednesday, when militants marking an anniversary launched a Grad missile toward the southern Israeli port city of Ashdod, the first in weeks, DPA reported.
Israeli responded with air strikes in Gaza, after which militants in the coastal enclave fired more rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel, culminating in a barrage of 28 projectiles on Saturday, a military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv said.
On Sunday, 10 more projectiles landed in southern Israel, including five more Russian-type, middle-range Grads toward the cities of Beersheba, Ashkelon and Ashdod.
Schools were closed in southern Israel Sunday, the start of the week after the Jewish Sabbath, in all cities within a range of 40 kilometres from the Gaza border.
The Israeli military spokeswoman told dpa that after air strikes on militant squads involved in the fire Saturday, Israeli jets bombed six more targets early Sunday throughout the strip - a tunnel, three rocket launching sites and two training grounds in the north and south.
Gaza emergency services chief Adham Abu Selmeya told reporters in the strip that nine Palestinians were killed, seven on Saturday, and two in the pre-dawn aerial raids on Sunday.
Ten people were wounded.
The Israeli casualty was a 59-year-old father of four, who was killed when he got out his car to run for cover in Ashkelon.
The al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the radical Islamic Jihad faction, claimed responsibility for many of the rockets.
Officials of the de-facto Hamas government in Gaza have held urgent contacts with Egypt, Turkey and representatives of the United Nations.
The Palestinian Authority in the West Bank also called for an end to the fighting.
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