A Palestinian was killed and two wounded shortly after midnight in the intensive Israeli airstrikes on eastern and southern Gaza Strip, medical sources and witnesses said.

The sources said that a Palestinian old man was killed and two wounded when warplanes struck a group of militants stationed in an area southeast of Gaza City, where ambulances brought them to Shiffa Hospital in the city.

Witnesses said Israeli war jets struck on Saturday midnight four targets in eastern and southern Gaza city and on southern Gaza Strip towns of Khan Younis and Rafah.

The witnesses said that Israeli F16 warplanes hovered over the coastal enclave, ruled by Islamic Hamas movement, and carried out sudden airstrikes on four separate targets in the Gaza Strip.

The witnesses said that three airstrikes targeted unpopulated areas in eastern Gaza City and in southern Gaza Strip towns of Khan Younis and Rafah. No injuries were reported and one of the Israeli missiles didn't explode.

A fourth airstrike targeted a group of militants in southeast of Gaza City, where paramedics said that at least two Palestinians were injured and were taken to Shiffa Hospital in the city.

Security officials in Gaza said that the intensive airstrikes on the coastal enclave were an Israeli retaliation to an earlier homemade rockets attacks fired from the Gaza Strip at southern Israel.

No one claimed responsibility for the rockets attacks, in which Israeli radio said two homemade rockets landed at an empty areas.

The escalation of violence in the Gaza Strip is a violation of a fragile ceasefire reached between Israel and Gaza militants, mediated by Egypt.