GAZA: Israel killed a Palestinian militant from the Hamas Islamist group and wounded another in an air strike on a motorcycle in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian officials said.

The Israeli military confirmed there was an attack but had no further details.

The violence followed a three-day lull since a surge last week in which Israel killed at least four Gaza militants as dozens of rockets were launched at Israeli towns, damaging a couple of homes and wounding several agricultural workers.

Officials with Hamas, which has controlled Gaza since seizing the territory in 2007, said both gunmen attacked by the Israeli aircraft near the town of Khan Younis were members of its group.

Hamas also said its gunmen had fired back mortars at Israeli ground forces they say had penetrated the coastal territory since the aerial attack.

Hamas claimed responsibility for some of those rocket and mortar bomb attacks last week after having largely held its fire for months when other militants, including jihadi groups, had launched cross-border rocket attacks in recent months.