Rockets pound Israel as air raids kill seven in Gaza

Israeli air raids killed seven Islamic Jihad militants in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, prompting a massive barrage of retaliatory rocket fire, officials said.Adham Abu Selmiya, spokesman for Gazas emergency services, said five members of the Al-Quds Brigades, Islamic Jihads armed wing, were killed and three critically wounded in a first Israeli attack.As tit-for-tat fighting continued into the night, Israeli aircraft struck two more targets in Gaza, witnesses and Palestinian officials said, killing two militants and wounding two allegedly preparing to fire a missile.A strike east of Gaza City caused no casualties. Israeli police said they were rasing their national alert level to its second-highest.The Israeli military could not immediately confirm the latest reported strikes but said of the earlier raid that the air force fired on a group of terrorists preparing to fire long-range rockets and that the attack had prevented the attempted firing.It said the men had also been responsible for firing a Grad rocket into Israel on Wednesday that hit near the city of Ashdod, 35 kilometres (22 miles) from the Gaza border.The Al-Quds Brigades confirmed that five members, including a commander named as Ahmed al-Sheikh Khalil, were killed in the first strike, on a training camp near the southern city of Rafah.The second fatal raid was also in Rafah, witnesses said.The strikes were the bloodiest since a tacit ceasefire was agreed between Gaza Palestinian militants and Israel in late August.