GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Sunday in air strikes and an undercover raid that Hamas said targeted one of its commanders and the Israeli military said left one of its officers dead.

The Israeli incursion and air attacks drew rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled enclave, with sirens sounding in Israeli communities along the border. The military said its defenses intercepted two of the launches. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage on the Israeli side of the frontier.

The violence prompted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to cut short a visit to Paris, where he had been gathering with world leaders for a World War One commemoration.

Hamas said the incident began when assailants in a passing car opened fire on a group of its armed men, killing one of its commanders. Hamas gunmen gave chase as the car sped back towards the border with Israel, Hamas said in a statement.

During the pursuit, Israeli aircraft fired more than 40 missiles in the area, according to witnesses.

Medics and Hamas officials said at least seven people were killed, four of them militants, including Hamas commander Nour Baraka. It was unclear if the other fatalities included gunmen.

The Israeli military said in a statement that: “During an IDF (Israel Defense Forces) Special Forces operational activity in the Gaza Strip, an exchange of fire evolved.”

One officer was killed and a second was wounded, it said.

A return by Israel to a policy of targeting individual Hamas commanders - tactics largely abandoned in recent years - could significantly raise tensions along the border.

Violence has flared frequently on the frontier since Palestinians began weekly protests on March 30. Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations have been trying to broker a long-term ceasefire. </s> JERUSALEM (AP) — The Israeli military says an officer was killed and another was moderately wounded during an operation in southeast Gaza Strip, involving an exchange of gunfire.

The early Monday statement followed a rare late-night burst of violence in which seven Palestinians were also killed. The flare-up came as Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers had appeared to be making progress toward ratcheting down months of border violence.

Israel's military later said the operation had ended.

Earlier, Hamas' armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, said Israeli undercover forces in a civilian vehicle infiltrated 3 kilometers, about 2 miles, into Gaza on Sunday and fatally shot Nour el-Deen Baraka, its local commander in Khan Younis town.

It said militants discovered the car and chased it down, prompting Israeli airstrikes that killed "a number of people." </s> Israel‘s army is warning of rockets fired from the Gaza Strip after a Hamas commander allegedly was killed in a Gaza raid that also left one Israeli officer dead.

READ MORE: Israel allegedly kills Hamas commander, 5 others in planned Gaza raid

IDF tweeted Sunday that an IDF officer was killed and an additional IDF officer was “moderately injured” after fire broke out in a special forces’ “operational activity.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has cut his trip to Paris for World War I commemorations short to return to Israel after the violence erupted along Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip, a spokesperson said.

At least seven Palestinians were killed by Israeli forces on Sunday in the Gaza Strip, medics and sources within the enclave’s dominant Hamas group said. Four of them were militants, including Hamas commander Nour Baraka, according to Hamas. It was unclear if the other fatalities included gunmen.

Hamas said the incident began when assailants in a passing car opened fire on a group of its armed men, killing one of its commanders. Hamas gunmen gave chase as the car sped back towards the border with Israel, Hamas said in a statement.

During the pursuit, Israeli aircraft fired more than 40 missiles

The Israeli military said in a statement that: “During an IDF (Israel Defense Forces) Special Forces operational activity in the Gaza Strip, an exchange of fire evolved.”

The military also said its defenses intercepted two missile launches from the Gaza Strip. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage on the Israeli side of the frontier.

IDF has sent eight identical “Rocket Alerts” on Twitter for the area of Eshkol near the Gaza Strip with a population of 13,600. The alerts say “sirens sounded in the Eshkol Regional Council. Details to follow.”

-More to come </s> Mourners chant Islamic slogans while carrying the body of Hamas militant commander Nour el-Deen Barakas, who was killed during an Israeli raid late Sunday, during his funeral, at his family house in Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip, Monday, Nov. 12, 2018. Thousands of mourners in the Gaza Strip buried seven Palestinians, including Barakas, killed after an Israeli incursion into the territory, which also killed one Israeli army officer. The cross-border fighting came just days after Israel and Hamas reached indirect deals, backed by Qatar and Egypt, to allow cash and fuel into Gaza. (AP Photo/Adel Hana) (Adel Hana) </s> Israeli forces killed seven Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in a clandestine raid targeting a Hamas commander and air attacks that provided cover for the commandos to escape back into Israel by car.

The Israeli incursion and air attacks drew rocket fire from the Hamas-controlled enclave late on Sunday. A senior official of Hamas, the group administering the Gaza Strip, said the Israeli special forces team infiltrated an area near the southern city of Khan Younis in a civilian vehicle.

Among those reported killed in the attack was Nour Baraka, a prominent commander of the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas.

A ground operation inside the Gaza Strip is rare and it is likely to up tensions significantly.

“We heard that a special Israeli unit went inside Khan Younis and assassinated Nour Baraka and another [commander],” Ghazi Hamad, senior Hamas official, told Al Jazeera.

“After [that], the car which carried this special unit or some collaborators, they tried to escape … but they were followed by Hamas and the al-Qassam Brigades and after that Israel tried to cover this car through striking here in Gaza,” he added.

“I expect this night in Gaza to not be easy, to not be calm.”

Witnesses said during the chase Israeli aircraft fired more than 40 missiles in the area where the incident took place, killing at least four other people.

Fawzi Barhoum, a spokesman for Hamas, denounced what he called a “cowardly Israeli attack”.

Exchange of fire

 An Israeli soldier was killed in an exchange of fire during the operation, the army said, as tensions rose with the Hamas-run Palestinian enclave.

“During an [Israeli] special forces operational activity in the Gaza Strip, an exchange of fire evolved,” the army said in a statement.

“At this incident, an IDF officer was killed and an additional officer was moderately injured,” it added, referring to the Israeli army.

The army said its soldiers had returned.

After the clash erupted, sirens were reported in southern Israel indicating rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.

Ten launches from Gaza towards Israel were identified and two were intercepted by Israeli missile defences, the army said. It was not immediately clear where the others landed.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on an official visit to France, announced he was rushing back to Israel to deal with the crisis.

A return by Israel to a policy of targeting individual Hamas commanders – tactics largely abandoned in recent years – could significantly raise tensions along the border.

Israel and Palestinian fighters in Gaza have fought three wars since 2008, and recent months of unrest have raised fears of a fourth.

Crippling blockade

 Violence has flared frequently on the frontier since Palestinians began weekly protests on March 30.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have demonstrated along the fence with Israel demanding their right to return to the homes and land their families were expelled from 70 years ago.

They are also demanding an end to Israel’s crippling blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.

Since the Great March of Return demonstrations began on March 30, more than 200 Palestinians have been killed and thousands more wounded by Israeli troops deployed along the other side of the fence.

Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations have been trying to broker a long-term ceasefire.

Mouin Rabbani, a senior fellow at the Institute for Palestine Studies, told Al Jazeera it is clear Sunday’s covert operation was “a premeditated assassination”.

“The question that arises is what Israel’s motivations were? Were they, as so often in the past, trying to give Hamas a bloody nose just to remind them that they’re in charge and that they will decide the terms of which any ceasefire is reached?

“Are they perhaps by contrast trying to scuttle this ceasefire initiative and perhaps engage in a larger conflict as happened in 2008, 2009, 2012 and 2014?” Rabbani said.

“My sense is that Israel at this stage is probably more interested in giving Hamas a bloody nose and trying to remind people who is boss and it will be Israel that decides the extent to which the illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip is maintained.”

Qatari cash

 On Friday, Palestinian civil servants began receiving payments after months of sporadic salary disbursements in cash-strapped Gaza, with $15m delivered into the enclave through Israel in suitcases by Qatar.

Hamas responded by lowering the intensity of Friday’s border protest.

Life under siege – Nafez Adayess: ‘People want to go back to their land’

 A total of $90m will be distributed in six monthly instalments, Gaza authorities said, primarily to cover salaries of officials working for Hamas.

Qatar has also said it would hand out $100 to each of 50,000 poor families, as well as larger sums to Palestinians wounded in clashes along the Gaza-Israel border.

The Gulf emirate has also started buying additional fuel for Gaza’s sole power station, allowing outages to be reduced to their lowest level in years.

The payments are part of what is expected to be a set of informal understandings between Israel and Hamas.

Netanyahu earlier on Sunday defended his decision to allow Qatar to transfer the cash to Gaza despite criticism from within his own government over the move, saying he wanted to avoid a war if it wasn’t necessary.

In the occupied West Bank, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas angrily accused Israel and the United States of ganging up behind his back to entrench Hamas’ control over Gaza.

He also accused Hamas of undermining his goal of establishing an independent Palestinian state that includes all of the occupied West Bank and the Gaza Strip. </s> An Israeli air strike on Monday killed two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who Israel's military said had been preparing to launch a rocket across the border.

Palestinian sources said a 24-year-old militant was killed in the strike and a second man later died of his wounds, but hospital officials did not say whether he was also a militant.

The air strike was "carried out in order to eliminate an imminent attack targeting civilian communities of southern Israel", a military spokesman said.

Gaza is run by the Islamist group Hamas, which is sworn to Israel's destruction, but which has been trying to prevent smaller militant groups from firing at Israel. </s> Jerusalem, Nov 12 (IANS) The Israeli authorities on Monday tightened security measures around the Gaza Strip following clashes that killed an Army official and wounded another, according to the Israeli military.

The Gaza Health Ministry said an exchange of fire erupted on Sunday night when Israeli forces claimed they were carrying out a military operation near the southern Gaza city of Khan Younis, which resulted in the deaths of seven Palestinians aged between 19-37 and left seven others injured, Efe news reported.

“During IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) special forces’ operational activity in Gaza, an exchange of fire broke out, during which an IDF officer was killed and an additional IDF officer was moderately injured,” the Israeli Army tweeted.

A Hamas military commander was also killed in Israeli forces operation, reports say. Hamas identified the deceased military commander as 37-year-old Nour Baraka of the Qassam Brigades, according to CNN.

The IDF said that after the gunfire, 17 missiles were fired from Gaza at the Israeli territory, three of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome.

The Israeli authorities, in response, shut down the Israeli railway line from Ashkelon to Sderot as well as schools in the Israeli communities adjacent to Gaza.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was in Paris along with other world leaders to commemorate the centenary of the end of World War I, cut short his visit to return to Israel to assess the situation.

Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman held an assessment meeting with intelligence and military police officials in Tel Aviv’s IDF headquarters early Monday.

Sunday’s escalation came just days after Qatar sent $15 million into Gaza in an attempt to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the coastal enclave and reduce tensions along the Gaza border, which has seen often violent clashes between Israeli security forces and Palestinian protesters. </s> JERUSALEM -- Gaza militants on Sunday intensified a wave of rocket fire into southern Israel, striking towns and cities and killing at least three people in one of the bloodiest rounds of fighting since the 2014 war. At least nine Palestinians, including a pregnant woman and her 14-month-old niece, have also been killed.

Israeli forces struck dozens of targets throughout Gaza, including militant sites that the military said were concealed in homes or residential areas. The army also moved armoured units toward Gaza as the sides headed closer to all-out war.

Israel and Hamas are bitter enemies that have fought three wars since the Islamic militant group seized control of Gaza in 2007, as well as numerous smaller flare-ups, most recently in late March.

These flare-ups have become increasingly frequent in recent years, ending in informal Egyptian-mediated truces in which Israel pledges to ease a crippling blockade on Gaza imposed after the Hamas takeover while the militants promise to halt rocket fire.

As with previous rounds of fighting, the latest violence began late last week amid Palestinian accusations that Israel was not moving quickly enough to ease the blockade.

In Sunday's fighting, Moshe Agadi, a 58-year-old Israeli father of four, was struck in the chest by shrapnel in a residential courtyard. The Barzilai Medical Center said a 49-year-old man was killed when a rocket hit an Ashkelon factory, while a second man was killed when his vehicle was hit by a projectile near Yad Mordechai, a small border community.

Later Sunday, Israeli medical officials said a Thai labourer was critically wounded in a rocket strike.

By late afternoon, the Israeli military said militants had fired over 600 rockets into Israel, and that Israeli forces had launched some 260 airstrikes against militant targets in Gaza.

The other dead included a pregnant woman and her niece, who were killed in what the officials said was an Israeli airstrike. The Israeli military denied involvement, saying the woman and baby were killed by a misfired Palestinian rocket. There was no way to reconcile the conflicting accounts.

Palestinian officials identified one of the militants as Hamas commander Hamed al-Khoudary, who Israel said was a key player in transferring Iranian money to the militant group.

The sudden outburst has broken a monthlong lull as Egyptian mediators had been trying to negotiate a long-term cease-fire.

Israeli military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus said Israel's strikes hit a variety of "high-quality" militant sites, including commanders' homes in which militant activity was observed.

The military spokesman said Israel was deploying an armoured brigade along the Gaza front, with tanks ready for offensive missions as needed. The Israeli military has already struck rocket launchers, tunnel shafts, training sites, storage depots and warehouses of both the territory's Hamas rulers and the smaller, Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad group.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Hamas was paying a "heavy price" for its rocket attacks, as well as those by Islamic Jihad.

Sirens wailed along the border region overnight and throughout the day warning of incoming attacks. School was cancelled and roads were closed.

In Gaza, large explosions thundered across the blockaded enclave during the night as plumes of smoke rose into the air.

By morning, bulldozers were clearing rubble and municipal workers were fixing damaged power lines. Owners of clothing stores that were destroyed in Gaza City's relatively upscale Remal neighbourhood squatted across the streets from where their stores had stood, cupping their faces in their hands.

One of the airstrikes hit a six-story commercial and residential building that housed the office of Turkey's official Anadolu news agency.

"We thought the Rimal neighbourhood is safe, but it seems there is no safe place in Gaza," said Nidal al-Dali, who lived in the building and lost his home.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu called it a "new example of Israel's unrestrained aggression."

The Israeli military said its Iron Dome defence system intercepted more than 150 of the projectiles from Gaza, but several still managed to slip through. A rocket scored a direct hit on a residential home in the border town of Sderot.

Dr. Ron Lobel, deputy director of the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, said teams had treated over 110 people, most from shock symptoms, but several with physical wounds. In a first, the hospital itself was also hit by debris from a rocket that was intercepted by an Iron Dome missile. There were no injuries, but the debris struck the hospital's oncology unit, bursting a pipe and sending water pouring from a ceiling into the hallway.

Israel has vowed to hit back hard against both Hamas and Islamic Jihad, whom it suspects of triggering the current conflagration. But, as in previous rounds where it stopped short of a full-fledged war, the timing for a prolonged round of fighting is tricky for Israel.

The country marks Memorial Day and Independence Day this week. The following week it is set to host the Eurovision song contest, in which large groups of tourists are expected.

For Gazans, the violence comes ahead of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in which the faithful fast from dawn to dusk, which begins Monday.

In recent days, Hamas accused Israel of reneging on its pledges as militants began to fire rockets.

Israel accuses Islamic Jihad of operating behind Hamas' back and instigating the latest round of violence by shooting and wounding two Israeli soldiers on Friday. Two Palestinians were shot dead by Israeli forces the same day during weekly protests along the Israel-Gaza perimeter fence.

Yaakov Amidror, a former Israeli national security adviser, said the violence was being instigated by Islamic Jihad at the behest of their backers in Iran. Amidror, currently a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security, said a new war in Gaza would distract Israel and leave Tehran "free to continue what they are doing in Syria." Iran is allied with President Bashar Assad's forces in the civil war and has been building up a military presence there in recent years, which Israel views as an unacceptable threat.

The resurgence of violence threatens to shatter the shaky understandings recently reached though Egyptian mediators. Palestinian militant leaders were in Cairo trying to reach a new cease-fire.

Hamas hopes Egyptian mediators can further ease the blockade, which has ravaged Gaza's economy. For over a year, Hamas has orchestrated mass demonstrations each week along the Israeli frontier to draw attention to Gaza's plight. More than 200 Palestinians and an Israeli soldier have been killed in the border protests. </s> Major Israeli operations occurred in the Gaza Strip in the night hours of Sunday during which Palestinian medical sources say at least 6 people have been killed in what was a daring Israeli elite forces raid that breached about 3 kilometers into Palestinian territory.

Palestinian officials confirmed an Israeli special forces raid on a group of Hamas commanders in the city of Khan Younis, which the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) say killed suspected Hamas terrorists, including a senior commander in its military wing.

Israeli media sources uploaded a military video of the brazen raid into Gaza:

Hamas sources say the group returned fire upon Israeli soldiers, resulting in unconfirmed reports circulating that one IDF soldier was either nabbed or killed.

Responding to the early reports, the IDF denied that one of its soldiers had either been killed or captured.

Hamas meanwhile acknowledged that a top Qassam Brigades commander, Nour Baraka, was killed by Israeli special forces who entered the area by driving what it described as a “civilian vehicle”.

Gaza's Interior Ministry reported at least one other Hamas commander killed in the shootout which began when the Israeli commandos ambushed the Hamas location in a drive-by shooting.

The Israeli military confirmed that “an exchange of fire broke out during security activities by the IDF in the Gaza Strip region,” but did not elaborate further. Israeli warplanes and drones began striking the Gaza during the raid.

Amazingly, after the shootout the Israeli special forces team managed to escape across the border fence as aircraft laid down cover fire, according to the Times of Israel.

During the exchange of gunfire communities in southern Israel reported up to multiple rockets fired out of Gaza - one which hit an open field - and claimed further "interceptions by the Iron Dome," according to an Israeli spokesperson.

Meanwhile the IDF spokesman took the unusual step of stating "contrary to reports, none of our soldiers were abducted during the operational activity that took place in Gaza" but refused to comment on further claims of casualties circulating after the raid.

Currently, the region is on edge as some citizens in southern Israel told Haaretz the exchange of fire “sounded almost like a war.” Multiple rocket sirens were triggered in southern Israel — likely, sporadic fighting will continue to escalate in the aftermath of Sunday nights clashes. </s> Jerusalem (CNN) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said "massive attacks against terrorist elements" in Gaza will continue after militants in the coastal enclave fired approximately 430 rockets towards Israel.

Speaking at the weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday morning, Netanyahu said: "Hamas bears the responsibility not only for its own attacks and actions but also for the actions of Islamic Jihad, and it is paying a very heavy price for this."

Israel has so far responded with airstrikes on more than 200 targets across Gaza, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).

One Israeli was killed by a rocket that landed in the city of Ashkelon just north of Gaza, a Barzilai hospital statement said, and two Palestinian militants were killed in the airstrikes, according to Gaza health officials.

The IDF denied killing a one-year old baby and the baby's pregnant mother in Gaza, and said the deaths were caused by a Hamas rocket that misfired.

A 58-year-old man was killed when a rocket hit his house in Ashkelon, according to a statement from Barzilai hospital. He is the first Israeli to be killed by rocket fire since the end of the 2014 war.

Two gunmen from the armed wing of Islamic Jihad were killed overnight in Gaza, according to a statement from the militant group. Two other Palestinian men died in earlier airstrikes on Saturday.

The UN said it is working with Egypt to try to restore a ceasefire and says both sides are putting at risk efforts to relieve the suffering of people in Gaza.

The escalation began Saturday morning with about 50 rockets fired towards Israel within the course of an hour and continued late into the evening.

The IDF said its Iron Dome aerial defense system had intercepted dozens of the incoming rockets.

In response to the rockets, the IDF said it carried out airstrikes on about 200 militant targets in Gaza, including a tunnel, rocket launcher sites and other military compounds used by Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ.) The military also struck a mosque in al-Shati in northern Gaza, which the IDF said was used a command and control center by Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Turkey has condemned a strike on a building housing the office of its state-run Anadolu news agency, a building which Israel says is also used by Hamas's military intelligence.

A spokesman for Turkey's President said: "We urge all governments that claim to defend press freedom, including @USEmbassyTurkey to join us in condemning the Israeli government."

Israel announced that it is closing the two border crossings between Israel and Gaza, as well as closing the Gaza fishing zone.

The fishing zone was restricted to 6 nautical miles earlier this week following a rocket fired from Gaza that landed off the coast of Israel.

There was no specific date for when the crossings and the fishing zone would reopen.

Saturday's rocket barrage came less than a day after two militants from Hamas' armed wing, the Qassam Brigades, were killed in an Israeli strike on Hamas posts in Gaza.

Israel launched airstrikes Friday after two Israeli soldiers were wounded by sniper fire along the Gaza border.

Two other Palestinians died in Gaza Friday, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health, with both men succumbing to their wounds after being shot by Israeli troops during protests along the Gaza fence, according to health officials.

In the run-up to that election, Egypt succeeded in mediating an agreement between Israel and Hamas, the militant group that runs Gaza, following an exchange of rockets and airstrikes in March.

The agreement, though never publicly acknowledged by Israel, included measures aimed at loosening the restrictions imposed on Gaza's 2 million inhabitants.

Recent pronouncements by Hamas officials have suggested growing frustration that Israel has not moved fast enough to fulfill its pledges, including allowing the transfer of millions of dollars of extra funding from Qatar.

The upturn in violence comes as Israel is preparing to mark Independence Day next week and host the Eurovision Song Contest the following week.

On Saturday evening, the UN's Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, announcing renewed efforts with Egypt to restore calm, called on all parties to immediately de-escalate or risk a conflict with "grave consequences for all."
Seven Palestinians, including commander Nour Baraka and three other militants, are killed during a raid by the Israel Defense Forces in the southeastern Gaza Strip, that was supported by air attacks. One IDF officer was killed and another was injured. Over a dozen rockets were subsequently fired from Gaza, three of which were shot down.