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Israeli strikes kill 10 in Gaza, Palestinians say

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JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Hours after Israel's prime minister vowed to respond to ongoing rocket attacks with an increased military response, Israeli strikes in Gaza killed at least 10 Palestinians, including a child, Palestinian security sources said Sunday.

Tank fire struck a house in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, wounding four people and killing a child, the sources said.

An Israel Defense Forces representative said the strike was in response to two rocket attacks on the Israeli town of Sderot. Fire was returned to the location from where it had emanated, he said.

And a pre-dawn Israeli airstrike Monday targeted a metal workshop in Gaza City, killing one man, the sources said.

An IDF spokeswoman confirmed the attack, calling the target a rocket production site.

Shortly before the missile attack, another airstrike hit the Gaza City home of Hamas lawmaker Khalil Hayya, the sources said.

Hayya was not home at the time, but the strike killed at least eight Palestinian civilians -- including some of the lawmaker's relatives, who were inside -- Palestinian medical sources said.

More than a dozen others were wounded, the sources said.

Hayya was at a meeting with Hamas and Fatah officials in Gaza City at the time of the airstrike to discuss the ongoing truce between the two Palestinian factions, according to Ramattan, a Palestinian news agency.

Israel claims house not target

A spokeswoman for the Israel Defense Forces said the airstrike targeted a cell of five militants who were standing on the street near Hayya's house and not the house itself.

Earlier, an IDF spokesman told CNN an Israeli military tank fired at two locations in northern Gaza from where Qassam rockets had been fired into Israel.

Palestinian security sources said no one was hurt in the the attack, which targeted a house and a group of militants and which they described as an airstrike.

Earlier in the day, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said "if the measured steps we are taking on the diplomatic front and on the military front don't bring the desired calm, we will be forced to intensify our response."

His remarks were made at the start of his weekly cabinet meeting.

In addition, an IDF statement said Defense Minister Amir Peretz deemed the area surrounding Gaza a "special situation," granting the military the power to decide whether to close schools or other public places.

The move was made, the IDF said, in response "to the continuing attacks on the civilians in and around the Gaza strip that will likely continue."

Both Olmert's comments and the IDF statement came within hours of an army report on three Qassam rockets fired Sunday into southern Israel from Gaza. Two landed in Sderot, but caused no casualties, the IDF said.

Israeli Army officials on Sunday said that during the prior 24 hours militants had launched 21 rockets into Israel, bringing the total number of rockets fired from Gaza into Israel over the past five days to about 130.

The army said it carried out five retaliatory airstrikes overnight.

Two strikes targeted a Hamas cell and a Hamas vehicle laden with weapons and the other three, launched on Beit Lahiya, Gaza City and Naserat, targeted suspected weapons-making sites, the IDF said.

There was no immediate word from the Palestinians on casualties.

On Saturday, Palestinian medical sources said two Palestinian civilians were killed and four were wounded in an IDF airstrike overnight Friday. An IDF spokesman said the attack, launched south of Beit Hanoun, targeted a group of militants believed to have launched a Qassam rocket on Sderot.

Israel maintains it is merely defending itself, given that dozens of rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel during the past few days, while the Palestinians have accused Israel of taking advantage of its internal Hamas-Fatah fighting.

As of Sunday morning, the two Palestinian factions seemed to be keeping in-line with their latest cease-fire deal, which took effect Saturday at 3 p.m. (8 a.m. ET) -- the fifth such attempt at peace in a week.

During nearly 24 hours, there had been no reports of violence.

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