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Two
Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid on the outskirts of
Nablus in the northern West Bank, where clashes had erupted, the
Palestinian Health Ministry said. A military spokesman said
gunmen exchanged fire with Israeli forces.
Earlier the military said aircraft struck Islamic Jihad command
centres and rocket launchers in pre-dawn operations in Gaza.
Grainy black and white aerial footage it released showed
explosions and clouds of smoke rising from bombed sites.
A few hours later Gaza militants fired rockets, setting off
sirens and sending Israelis in border communities running to
bomb shelters. There were no reports of casualties inside
Israel.
Egypt has been trying to mediate a truce to the latest outbreak
of violence, which has so far killed at least 33 Palestinians
and one Israeli. More than 140 Palestinians and at least 19
Israelis and foreigners have died in clashes since January.
A Palestinian official familiar with the truce talks described
them as "complicated" and "tough" but confirmed that Cairo was
pressing ahead with its efforts.
Six top Islamic Jihad commanders have been killed since Tuesday,
when Israeli forces launched a campaign against the group, which
it said was planning attacks.
Islamic Jihad, the largest armed group in Gaza after the ruling
Islamist Hamas, has since fired more than 1,000 rockets, some
deep into Israel. One woman was killed on Thursday when an
apartment was struck in a Tel Aviv suburb.
At least four women and six children have died in densely
populated Gaza, an impoverished coastal territory blockaded by
Israel and Egypt since 2007. Israel says four Palestinians were
killed by misfired Gaza rockets, which Islamic Jihad has denied.
Islamic Jihad spurns coexistence with Israel and preaches its
destruction. Top ministers of Israel's religious nationalist
government rule out any state sought by Palestinians in
territories captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.
(Reporting by Ali Sawafta, Nidal al-Mughrabi and Maayan Lubell;
Editing by William Mallard and John Stonestreet)
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