LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Schools remain closed in some southern cities and many are residents staying in bomb shelters in case of attack. Four Israelis have been injured in the clashes.

Hostilities began Friday after Israel killed a leader of the militant group Popular Resistance Committees.

Gaza-based militants returned fire with more than 125 projectiles at southern Israel. Thirty of the rockets were destroyed by Israel's Iron Dome missile-interception system. A small amount of rockets appear to have evaded the system, landing in populated areas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he has ordered the military to respond harshly to the rocket attacks. According to officials, Israeli air strikes during the past two days have killed 16 militants, some apparently caught in the act of trying to fire rockets. Among those killed have been a 55-year-old man and the schoolboy, who was between 12 and 14 years old.

"We have exacted from them a very high price," Netanyahu said. "Naturally, we will act as necessary."

Hamas, which controls Gaza, condemned Israel's strikes and called for a cease-fire. "Our priority as a government now is to stop the aggression," Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh said.
Sources say at least one more Palestinian was wounded in the early Sunday raid in the eastern part of the Gaza Strip, the sources said, after armed groups fired 100 rockets into Israel.

A Palestinian riding a motorcycle was killed and two others were wounded in an Israeli air raid close to the southern town of Rafah near the border with Egypt.

Two men, also riding a motorbike were killed earlier the same day in another raid on the town of Khan Yunis, medics said.

"The targeting is in direct response to the rocket fire at Israeli communities in southern Israel," the Israeli military said in a statement.

"Over the past 24 hours, over 45 rockets have hit communities in southern Israel- injuring four people, one severely, one moderately and two lightly."

An air raid late on Friday struck down three Palestinians after an Apache helicopter fired rockets that hit a house and a car.

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