(dpa) - Palestinian armed groups shelled southern Israeli communities with makeshift rockets Saturday in response to the death of eight Palestinians Friday in an air raid the factions hold Israel responsible for.
The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) said that it had fired 10 home-made rockets onto Israeli targets in Western Negev and southern Israel's port city of Ashkelon.
"The rocket attacks are in response to the al-Bureij massacre," PRC spokesman Abu Mujahed said, referring to the explosion that destroyed the house of a senior Islamic Jihad commander in the central Gaza Strip on Friday night.
Israel has denied any involvement in the explosion, but witnesses said F16 warplanes had struck the house, killing eight people, including the commander, his wife and children and several neighbours.
The armed wings of the leftist factions, meanwhile, claimed responsibility for firing a number of mortar shells at two Israeli- controlled commercial crossing points into Gaza.
"The world should remember the Israeli massacres against the Palestinian people in order not to blame the Palestinians one day when they carry out operations against the Israeli enemy," Abu Mujahed said.
"There is no security for the Zionists in their settlements and streets - the confrontation embarked on a new phase of conflict," he said, threatening to carry out suicide bombings into Israel.