Israeli airstrikes killed two more Palestinian militants early Wednesday in the Gaza Strip, putting the death toll to three since Tuesday night, medical sources said.

The militants were killed in three separate raids while firing rockets into Israel in a new surge of cross-border violence.

The latest airstrike took place in the southern Gaza town of Rafah and the first two raids happened in the northern town of Beit Lahiya.

Ashraf al-Qedra, spokesperson of the Hamas health ministry, said the Israeli bombings wounded seven people, some of them in critical conditions.

Israeli media reports said that about 50 rockets and mortar shells were fired from Gaza and landed in Western Negev, injuring five people including a border police guard and two Thai workers.

Ezz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Gaza's Hamas rulers, claimed responsibility for firing the rockets together with the Popular Resistance Committees(PRC), a militant group with close ties to Hamas.

Meanwhile, Palestinian officials said Israel has shut down Erez crossing point in northern Gaza, which individuals use to cross into Israel, and Kerem Shalom commercial crossing in the south following the escalation of the violence.

Maher Abu Sabha, Hamas director of crossings, said that the Hamas police checkpoint near Erez was evacuated after an officer was injured when two shells landed there.

The attacks seem to be a resumption of the cross-border violence that started on the weekend, which halted temporarily Tuesday due to the landmark visit by Qatar's Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani.

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