IDF strikes kill nine in Gaza as barrage of mortars hits Israel

Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip killed four Hamas militants and five Palestinian civilians on Friday as a fresh spike in cross-border violence continued for a second day.

The Israel Defense Forces said it had “identified two terrorist squads from Hamas” and hit them from the ground and air.

An elderly Palestinian and two women died when their house in Khan Younis was hit and three other women were wounded, hospital sources said.

Following the IDF attack in Gaza, a barrage of rockets and mortar shells was fired at Israeli towns near the Gaza Strip, and one of the shells exploded in a chicken coop in the Eshkol Regional Council in the Negev.

Read more at Haaretz.com.