DHAKA: Israel has carried out more air strikes on the Gaza Strip, following a volley of rockets fired by the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas.

Nine Palestinians, including a woman and two children, were reportedly hurt in the strikes.

Hamas earlier said its members fired rockets to respond to ‘Zionist aggression’, after accusing Israel of killing five of its fighters.

Israel denied the claim, but said 1,500 reservists had been called up.

Tension has spiked in recent days over the murders of three young Israelis and a Palestinian teenager, reports the BBC.

The Israeli military said its offensive was part of a campaign codenamed ‘Operation Protective Edge’, targeting Hamas militants.

Towns within 40km of the Gaza Strip were instructed by the central authorities to close schools and summer camps.

Palestinian medical and security sources said the nine Palestinians were injured when one of the pre-dawn Israeli strikes hit a house of a Hamas activist in the southern town of Khan Younis.

A Hamas spokesman had earlier accused Israel of killing the five militants during Sunday’s air strikes and called it a ‘grave escalation’.

But Israeli military spokesman Lt Col Peter Lerner denied the claims, saying the men had died on Sunday in a tunnel that had been bombarded by Israel on Thursday.

He said the militants went into the tunnel to assess the damage from the air strike and meddled with some explosives, which were apparently detonated accidentally.

Israel said that Hamas had launched dozens of rockets on southern and central towns on Monday.

There were no reports of casualties in Israel.

BDST: 0921 HRS, JULY 8, 2014