The News

The Latest: Israeli airstrikes kill 3 Gaza militants

JERUSALEM (AP) — The Latest on Israeli-Palestinian violence in Gaza (all times local):

3:35 p.m.

Gaza’s Health Ministry says three Palestinians have been killed in a pair of Israeli airstrikes.

An airstrike on a car Sunday killed one man, identified by residents as Hamed al-Khoudary, a Hamas commander. Earlier, Islamic Jihad confirmed the deaths of two militants killed in east Gaza City.

The latest deaths bring to nine the number of Palestinians killed since Saturday, when militants began firing rockets toward Israel.

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3:30 p.m.

An Israeli hospital official says a total of three people have been killed from Palestinian rocket fire.

Dr. Ron Lobel, deputy director of the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon, said Sunday his hospital has treated over 110 people over the past 24 hours. He confirmed three deaths.

Lobel did not identify the dead, but they appeared to include a man hit early Sunday when a rocket landed in a residential courtyard and two people who were hit near an Ashkelon factory, according to Israeli media.

An Israeli woman was also critically wounded when an anti-tank missile struck the car she was traveling in.

At least eight Palestinians, including a pregnant woman and her 14-month-old niece, have also been killed since the fighting erupted Saturday.

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2:30 p.m.

An Israeli hospital says it’s been hit by shrapnel after an rocket fired from the Gaza Strip was intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defense system.

Dr. Hezi Levy, director of the Barzilai University Medical Center in the city of Ashkelon, says there were no injuries Sunday, but the hospital’s oncology unit suffered damage. He says the interception sent a large amount of metal fragments falling onto the hospital.

The medical center released a video of water pouring through the ceiling into a hallway after pipes were damaged by the strike.

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2:10 p.m.

The Israeli military says it’s struck a series of new targets in the Gaza Strip, including sites it says were hidden in the homes of Hamas militants or concealed in civilian areas.

In an announcement Sunday, the military said jets and attack helicopters have struck tunnels, military compounds, a weapons-manufacturing facility and several rocket-launching sites.

The army says it’s struck some 260 targets since fighting erupted a day earlier. Gaza militants have fired hundreds of rockets during that time, and air raid sirens continue to sound throughout southern Israel.

Six Palestinians, including a pregnant woman and her 14-month-old niece, as well as one Israeli man have been killed in the fighting.

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2 p.m.

Israel’s main rescue service says a rocket from Gaza has wounded three Israelis, including two seriously.

The Magen David Adom service says the two men, ages 40 and 22, suffered “multisystem trauma” after being hit with shrapnel Sunday in the coastal city of Ashkelon. The third man, 50, was moderately wounded.

Earlier in the day, an Israeli man was killed in Ashkelon, the first Israeli to die from rocket fire since the 2014 war with Hamas militants.

Gaza militants have fired more than 400 rockets at Israel, with several direct hits on residential buildings. A midday burst struck a home in the city of Beersheba.

Gaza’s Heath Ministry says six Palestinians have been killed by retaliatory Israeli airstrikes, including a pregnant woman and her 14-month-old niece. The Israeli military says it was not involved in the incident.

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1:40 p.m.

The family of a pregnant Palestinian woman killed by fighting in Gaza over the weekend alongside a 14-month-old girl says the woman was the girl’s aunt, not her mother as earlier announced.

Gaza health officials initially identified the woman, Falistin Abu Arar, 37, as the girl’s mother. But members of the family clarified the relationship on Sunday.

Palestinian officials say the two civilians were killed in an Israeli airstrike Saturday, while the Israeli army says it was not involved in the incident. It says the pair were killed by a misfired Palestinian rocket. The conflicting accounts could not immediately be reconciled.

Gaza militants have fired more than 400 rockets at Israel, killing one Israeli man, in one of the most intense flare-ups in years. Israel says it has struck back against some 220 targets, killing eight militants.

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11:40 a.m.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Gaza’s Hamas rulers are paying a “heavy price” for the rocket attacks against Israel.

At the start of his weekly Cabinet meeting Sunday, Netanyahu said Hamas is not only responsible for its own militant actions but also those of the Islamic Jihad group, which operates in the Gaza Strip.

Netanyahu says he has instructed the military to continue its large-scale airstrikes against militant sites in Gaza and has ordered armor, artillery and infantry reinforcements up to the besieged enclave’s perimeter.

Gaza militants have fired more than 400 rockets at Israel over the past day, killing one Israeli man, in one of the most intense flare-ups of violence in years. Israel says it has struck back against some 220 targets, killing eight militants. A pregnant Palestinian woman and her young daughter have also been killed in the fighting.

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9:50 a.m.

The Israeli military says an errant Palestinian rocket that misfired — not an Israeli airstrike — caused the death of a pregnant Palestinian mother and her 14-month-old girl in the Gaza Strip.

Military spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus on Sunday disputed the Gaza Health Ministry’s statement that an Israeli strike killed the Palestinian woman, 37, and her daughter, Seba Abu Arar, in their east Gaza City home the previous day.

Conricus says Israeli forces have killed eight militants amid strikes against some 220 targets in the Gaza Strip. He says these were all deemed “high-quality,” legitimate militant sites, including the homes of militants in which militant activity was taking place. He says he has no knowledge of civilians being harmed by Israeli fire.

In the new round of violence, militants in Gaza have fired over 400 rockets into southern Israel in the last 24 hours, killing one Israeli man, Moshe Agadi.

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8:50 a.m.

Israeli medical officials say an early morning rocket from Gaza has killed an Israeli man outside a home in the coastal city of Ashkelon.

After being struck by shrapnel Sunday, 58-year-old Moshe Agadi has died of his wounds, marking the first Israeli casualty from rocket fire since the 2014 war with Hamas militants.

Gaza militants have fired more than 400 rockets at Israel over the past day in one of the most intense flareups of violence in years, which broke a monthlong lull.

Israel’s Iron Dome defense system intercepted dozens of the projectiles but four Israelis were wounded, including an elderly man who’s in a critical condition.

Israel has retaliated with dozens of airstrikes against militant sites in Gaza. Six Palestinians, including a pregnant mother and her baby, were killed.