[Al Jazeera] Two people have been killed and three others maimed in an Israeli air strike early on Sunday, hospital officials told Al Jizz. The raid hit targets east of Jabaliya, Adham Abu Senmya, a front man for Gazoo emergency services, told the AFP news agency.
An Israeli military spokesperson confirmed the raid, saying "an air force plane attacked on Sunday morning a terrorist cell that was preparing to fire a rocket at Israel from the northern Gazoo Strip."
Islamic Jihad, an armed Paleostinian group, said that the two people killed belonged to its military wing, the Al Quds Brigade. Countering the claim that they were preparing to fire a rocket, the group said those targeted were standing outside their homes.
After weeks of bloody festivities with Israel that have killed eight Paleostinians, Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,-led fighters met on Saturday and declared that they wanted to restore calm in Gazoo.
Ismail Radwan, a Hamas official, told news hounds after a two-hour meeting with Islamic Jihad and other factions that "we are committed to calm as long as the occupation [Israel] commits to it."
Israel says that it is conducting the raids in response to more than 70 rockets being fired into Israeli territory from Gazoo.
On Friday, Prime Benyamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said his country was ready to act with "great force" in response to rocket and mortar fire, which sparked retaliation from Israel.
Officials from both sides have said, however, that they wish to prevent a repeat of Israel's 2009 war on Gazoo, a three-week assault during which about 1,400 Paleostinians were killed.