GAZA CITY, Dec 4: Palestinian militants fired rockets from the Gaza Strip on Sunday after Israel launched a series of air raids and pounded the territory with artillery fire.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of the ruling Fatah faction, said it had fired two missiles at dawn into southern Israel in response to the killing of two Palestinians on Saturday, one of the most violent days in Gaza since Israel pulled its troops out of the territory in September.

The Israeli military also reported that two makeshift rockets landed in the village of Shuva in the Negev desert, damaging a house and leaving several people in a state of shock. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

While the new attacks did not cause any casualties, they looked set to prompt more retaliation from Israel after its defence minister and army chief of staff both pledged to match fire with fire.

Israeli aircraft carried out four raids on Gaza overnight, concentrating on an area from where makeshift rockets had been fired into Israel on Saturday, without causing casualties.

“One of these attacks targeted an office organizing terrorist activities and three others targeted a sector in the north of the region from where Qassam rockets have been fired at Israel,” the Israeli army spokeswoman told AFP.

“These were reprisals after the Palestinians fired Qassam rockets,” the spokesman claimed.

An AFP correspondent in Gaza said at least two helicopter gunships took part in the raids. There were no immediate reports of casualties.

Three makeshift Qassam rockets, which take their name from the armed wing of Hamas, hit Israeli territory on Saturday without causing any casualties.

A military source said the rockets fell near the Carmilla kibbutz, south of the town of Ashkelon, and on the village of Nativ Ha Assera. Two others landed inside the Gaza Strip.

Soldiers posted close to the border had initially responded on Saturday with a sustained barrage of artillery fire from Israel into an uninhabited area of Gaza.

Israel pulled all its troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip over the summer but has warned that it will have no hesitation in taking offensive action against militant groups, who are meant to be observing a truce, if they carry out cross-border attacks.

Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz, one of the main planners of the withdrawal, reiterated that Israel would not sit with its hands crossed in the wake of attacks by militants.

“I have ordered the army to take immediate offensive measures in reaction to the rocket and mortar firing ... If calm does not reign in Israel, it will not reign in Gaza,” he told public radio.

The army chief of staff, General Dan Halutz, also underlined that the “bombing will not stop until attacks stop.”—AFP