Al-Qassam Brigades, the Islamist Hamas movement's armed wing, claimed responsibility Saturday for a fresh barrage of dozens of homemade and Russian-made Grad rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, DPA reported.
The group said in leaflets faxed to reporters that its militants fired medium-range Qassam and Grad rockets at Israeli communities in southern Israel.
Israeli Radio reported property damage, but no injuries, resulting from the new attacks.
The Al-Qassam Brigades intensified its rockets attacks on Israel after Israeli jets killed three of the group's members very early on Saturday in two separate airstrikes in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah and in Jabalia, in the north.
Adham Abu Selmeya, spokesman of Hamas government's medical services, told reporters that, since Thursday afternoon, 17 people had been killed and 60 wounded by Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip.