Gaza violence lull ends with Israeli strikes, rockets

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GAZA CITY, Mar 13 (AFP): Israeli warplanes hammered Gaza militants and rockets fell on the Jewish state Thursday, shattering a tacit five-day truce around the coastal strip and blunting international mediation efforts.
The violence erupted within hours of an Israeli operation in the West Bank town of Bethlehem in which undercover special forces killed four gunmen, including two senior commanders.
Israeli warplanes hit targets in the northern Gaza Strip early Thursday after militants from the radical Islamic Jihad group fired a dozen rockets into the Jewish state, the army said.
"The Israeli air force raid targeted a rocket launcher that was ready to fire in the Beit Hanun area in the northern Gaza Strip," an Israeli army spokesman told the news agency.
"Twelve rockets were fired from Gaza towards southern Israel overnight," he added. "Two of the rockets exploded at Sderot, damaging a building, but without injuring anybody."
The strikes, which did not cause injuries, overshadowed international efforts underway in neighbouring Egypt to broker a more permanent deal to end the violence and the isolation around the impoverished Hamas-run coastal strip.
In Bethlehem, Palestinian security officials said the four killed by the Israeli unit included Mohammed Shahada, 48, a top leader in the armed wing of the radical Islamic Jihad group, and Ahmed al-Balbul, 48, a senior official in the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. The latter armed group is loosely tied to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party.