Palestinian killed in Israeli strikes

A Palestinian man has been killed and at least two others have been injured following a series of Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.

Hospital officials said the man, believed to have been in his 50s or 60s, succumbed to injuries sustained on the attack southeast of Gaza City.

The Israeli military said in a statement that the strikes had "targeted a terror tunnel and a weapon manufacturing facility in the northern Gaza Strip, a terror tunnel in the central Gaza Strip and an additional terror tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip."

It also said the attacks came in response to rockets fired by Palestinian militants at southern Israel that lightly injured a woman in the Hof Ashkelon area. No militant group has claimed responsibility for that rocket attack.

This weekend's violence violates a ceasefire reached through Egyptian mediation between the two sides.

Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that rules Gaza, has tried to curb attacks on Israel as it seeks to form a unity government with the Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, which controls the West Bank.

Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas premier of Gaza, on Saturday reiterated that his movement would "never recognize Israel." Speaking during a visit to Iran, he pledged that the resistance would continue "until all Palestinian land, including Al-Quds [Jerusalem] has been liberated and all the refugees have returned."

pfd/cmk (Reuters, AFP, dpa)