Toll from Israel Gaza strikes now 14 militants

The worst violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip in nearly a year entered its second day on Saturday, as Israeli aircraft killed 14 militants, according to Palestinian health officials. Militants responded by firing nearly 100 rockets, seriously wounding an Israeli civilian.         

The airstrikes and rocket attacks could drag the volatile area into broader conflict especially if a large number of civilians are killed on either side.          

On Saturday, the low whooshing noise of militants firing rockets from border areas toward Israel was palpably heard inside Gaza City. Israeli drones hovered in the skies above. Tens of thousands of Palestinian mourners marched through the streets in funeral processions. They carried slain militants in coffins, their bodies too torn up to be wrapped in cloth, as Muslim tradition dictates. Masked militants sprayed machine gun fire above the mourners' heads in angry grief.        

"Revenge, revenge!" chanted the crowds.            

On Israel's southern border areas, residents were told to stay home and refrain from holding large outdoor events on Saturday.          

The flare-up began Friday with a strike on militant commander Zuhair al-Qaissi, whom Israel said was planning an attack from the nearby Egyptian Sinai peninsula into the Jewish state. He was the leader of the Popular Resistance Committees, a small group best known for the 2006 abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit. Schalit was freed last year in exchange for over 1,000 Palestinian prisoners.          

It was the highest profile killing Israel has undertaken against militants in the coastal strip in several months.         

Gaza militants then unleashed a barrage of rockets toward Israel's southern border communities. One rocket seriously wounded an Israeli civilian and sent families scattering into bomb shelters.             

So far, militants have fired 92 rockets. The military said its air defense systems intercepted some 25 rockets before they landed.          

In comparison, Palestinian militants fired some 50 rockets toward Israel in the three months preceding the flare up, a military spokesman said. He spoke anonymously in line with military regulations.           

AP