Palestinian militants in Gaza launched rockets at southern Israel and Israeli aircraft struck targets in the coastal enclave early on Thursday after a gunbattle triggered by an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank killed 10 Palestinians.

The bloodshed extends one of the deadliest periods in years in the West Bank, where dozens of Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the start of the year. Palestinian attacks on Israelis in 2023 have killed 11 people.

The Israeli military said Palestinian militants fired six rockets and two anti-aircraft missiles from the Gaza Strip towards the country’s south early on Thursday. Air defences intercepted five of the rockets and one landed in an open field, according to the military. The missiles did not hit their targets.

The attacks were not immediately claimed by Palestinian militant groups. Israeli aircraft then struck several targets in northern and central Gaza, including a weapons manufacturing site and a military compound belonging to the Hamas militant group that rules the enclave. There were no reports of injuries in Israel or Gaza from the rocket attacks or strikes.

The violence comes in the first weeks of Israel’s new farRight government, which has promised to take a tough line against Palestinians, and as security forces step up arrest raids of wanted militants in the West Bank.

Israel says the raids began in the wake of a series of deadly Palestinian attacks last spring and are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future assaults. But the operations have shown few signs of slowing the violence and Wednesday’s resulted in one of the bloodiest battles in nearly a year in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, raising the likelihood of further bloodshed.

“We have a clear policy: to strike terror powerfully and to deepen our roots in our land,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a meeting of his Cabinet. “We will settle accounts with whoever harms Israeli citizens.”

AP/PTI