Israeli airstrikes leave 4 killed and 7 injured in Gaza

Palestinians gathered around the body of the activist Ismail al-Tally Several Israeli airstrikes on the Gaza Strip killed four people and injured seven since late Tuesday, medical sources in Gaza said to Arabstoday. Israeli warplanes struck Rafah early Wednesday, killing Mohammad Al-Sheikh, 32, a member of the People's Resistance Committees' military wing the Nasser Saladin Brigades.
One other person was also injured in the attack.
Israel's army said it was targeting fighters who moments earlier had fired a rocket into southern Israel.
At midnight, an airstrike on Beit Lahiya in Gaza's north killed Ismail al-Tally, a member of Hamas' Ezzeddine al-Qassam Brigades, and injured three others, Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qidra said.
Another overnight strike in north west of Beit Lahiya killed Loai Abed al-Hakeen 24, and Youssef Abu Jalhoum, al-Qidra said. One other person was seriously wounded.
Israel's army said it targeted fighters in the north of the Gaza Strip "during their final preparations to fire rockets towards southern Israel."
Hamas officials also reported Israeli tanks firing into Gaza. A military spokesman confirmed that report.
Gaza's Ministry of Education said six schools have been evacuated in Khan Younis due to Israeli airstrikes in the area.
Late on Tuesday, an Israeli airstrike killed one man and injured three others after Israel's army said six rockets fired from the Gaza Strip landed across the border.
The attack came hours after Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine fighters claimed responsibility for an attack that wounded an Israeli soldier on the Gaza border. The Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades said it was responsible for a bomb that went off beside an army patrol east of Khan Younis.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had said Israel would deliver a strong response to the attack. "We will fight and we will hit them very, very hard," Netanyahu said.
An Israeli army spokesman said that over 60 rockets have been fired at Israel since late Tuesday, injuring three foreign workers in Israel's southern Eshkol region.
The airstrikes followed a historic visit by the Emir of Qatar, which ended the isolation of the Hamas leadership in Gaza.
Thousands gathered in the streets of Gaza to welcome the Qatari Prince, who was the first head of state to visit the Hamas-run enclave since 1999.