Israeli forces have struck southern Gaza’s main city after a rocket barrage claimed by group Islamic Jihad, and as shelling and fighting raged on across the besieged Palestinian territory, AFP reports.

A group of Palestinian detainees meanwhile returned to the Gaza Strip, including the director of its biggest hospital who recounted “severe torture” in Israeli custody.

The Israeli military said that about “20 projectiles were identified crossing from the area of Khan Younis” in a rare salvo after nearly nine months of devastating conflict.

The rockets were aimed at Israeli communities near the Gaza border and were fired in retaliation for Israeli “crimes… against our Palestinian people”, said Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad which has fought alongside Hamas.

Most launches were intercepted, the Israeli military said, reporting no casualties and saying artillery was “striking the sources of the fire”.

Elsewhere in Gaza, witnesses and the civil defence agency reported Israeli air strikes including in the southern Rafah area and the central Nuseirat refugee camp.