Gaza boy killed in Israeli air strike after militant rockets hit Israel

GAZA: Fragments from a missile fired by an Israeli aircraft killed a 10-year-old Palestinian boy in Hamas-controlled Gaza on Saturday, medical officials said.

A statement by the Israeli military said aircraft had targeted four camps belonging to Hamas after four missiles landed in open areas in southern Israel late on Friday. No casualties were reported from the rocket strikes.

Residents of Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip said Yassin Abu Khoussa died after missile debris hit his home, which is situated next to a training camp. His six-year-old sister was wounded, the medical officials added.

The fatality from air strikes in Gaza was the first since last October. The Israeli army said that since the beginning of the year and including Friday's salvo, seven rockets have been fired from the Gaza Strip into Israel.

Israeli military spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Peter Lerner said the rocket strike was an effort by Hamas to "threaten the security and safety of the people of southern Israel. The (military) will continue to act to protect against those who threaten innocent lives and Israel's sovereignty."

Gaza rocket fire has tapered off significantly since a 2014 war when militants fired thousands of rockets and mortars into Israel and over 2,100 Palestinians, mostly civilians, and six Israeli civilians and 67 soldiers were killed.

Beset by a months-long surge of street attacks by Palestinians from the occupied West Bank and Jerusalem, Israel has little desire to see a fresh flare-up in Gaza, where Hamas has mostly held its fire in the past 18 months.