Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli attack on the suburbs of Nablus in the northern West Bank, where clashes broke out, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. A military spokesman said gunmen exchanged fire with Israeli forces.
Earlier, the military said planes hit Islamic Jihad command centers and rocket launchers in pre-dawn operations in Gaza. Grainy black-and-white aerial footage they released showed explosions and plumes of smoke rising from the bombed sites.
Hours later militants from Gaza fired rockets, setting off sirens and sending Israelis in border communities into bomb shelters. There are no reports of casualties inside Israel.
Egypt is trying to broker a truce over the latest outbreak of violence, which has so far killed at least 33 Palestinians and one Israeli. More than 140 Palestinians and at least 19 Israelis and foreigners have died in clashes since January.
A Palestinian official familiar with the truce talks described them as “complicated” and “difficult” but confirmed that Cairo was continuing its efforts.
Six top Islamic Jihad commanders have been killed since Tuesday, when Israeli forces launched a campaign against the group, which it said was planning attacks.
Islamic Jihad, the largest armed group in Gaza after the ruling Islamist Hamas, has since fired more than 1,000 rockets, some deep into Israel. A woman was killed Thursday when an apartment in a Tel Aviv suburb was hit.
At least four women and six children were killed in densely populated Gaza, a poor coastal territory blockaded by Israel and Egypt since 2007. Israel says four Palestinians were killed by unfired rockets in Gaza, which Islamic Jihad denies.
Islamic Jihad rejects coexistence with Israel and preaches its destruction. Top ministers in Israel’s religiously nationalist government have ruled out any state sought by Palestinians in territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
