Israel: Gaza violence wounds scores, threatens peace deal
Relatives of 14-year old Moamen al-Adam, who was killed in an Israeli air strike the day before, mourn during his funeral in Gaza city on June 21, 2012. The latest attacks follow three days of violence in which eight Palestinians were killed in Israeli air strikes while militants fired scores of rockets at the Jewish state, one of which slammed into a border police outpost, wounding four.
Israel launched air strikes on Hamas targets in Gaza on Saturday, while militants stepped up rocket fire.
The Israeli raids reportedly wounded more than 20 Palestinians, including a baby, medical officials in the territory said, Reuters reported.
Israel reportedly confirmed that its aircraft had struck two militant targets in Gaza overnight, however the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) said the air strikes had targeted people preparing or firing rockets, the BBC reported.
The Jerusalem Post reported that the Israel Air Force had struck "three Palestinian terror bases" in the Gaza Strip early Saturday morning.
The medical officials, meanwhile, said a 6-year-old Palestinian boy was killed in an air strike.
The BBC, citing hospital officials, reported that two women and four children had been wounded.
Meanwhile, an Israeli man was injured by the rocket fired from Gaza — one of more than 150 fired at Israel over the past week, the Associated Press reported.
More than a million Israelis live in range of the rockets in southern Israel, the AP wrote.
The violence threatened to unravel an Egyptian-brokered truce called Wednesday truce called on fighting that erupted on Monday after a militant raid across Egypt's Sinai border in which an Israeli man and two gunmen were killed.
More from GlobalPost: Israeli civilian and 2 'terrorists' killed on Egypt-Israel border
Blaming the attack on pro Al Qaeda Salafist militants, Israel responded with air strikes in Islamist-ruled Gaza, which also borders on Egypt.
According to the AP, Israel's military chief of staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz called a meeting of senior officers to discuss the latest flare up.