GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Violence has flared up between Israel and Gaza, with the Israeli air force killing four Palestinians and Palestinian militants firing rockets far across the border.

The fighting erupted on Thursday when an air strike on a car killed two militants, one of them from Gaza’s governing Islamist group Hamas, whom Israel accused of planning to send gunmen to attack it through the neighboring Sinai region of Egypt.

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Violence flared up between Israel and Gaza, with the Israeli air force killing three Palestinians and militants firing rockets deep across the border.

The latest fighting erupted on Thursday when an air strike on a car killed two militants, one of them from Gaza’s governing Islamist group Hamas, whom Israel accused of planning to send gunmen to attack it through the neighboring Sinai region of Egypt.

GAZA (Reuters) – An Israeli air strike on a car killed two militants and wounded two other men on a crowded Gaza street Thursday, the Israeli army and local medical officials said.

The men were identified as Essam Al-Batsh and Sobhi Al-Batsh, relatives initially identified as brothers.

GAZA (Reuters) – Dozens of Hamas operatives have quietly returned to Gaza from Damascus as the Islamist group scales back its presence in Syria and gauges the uncertain future of President Bashar al-Assad, diplomats said on Sunday.

Officially, Hamas leaders are sticking to their denial they plan to quit the Syrian capital, where the group keeps its main headquarters outside the Gaza Strip.

GAZA (Reuters) – The Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, which traded deadly fire with Israel at the weekend in Gaza, does not expect a subsequent truce to last long and has at least 8,000 fighters ready for war, a spokesman said.

Islamic Jihad is the second largest armed group in Gaza, after Hamas, which rules the tiny Mediterranean enclave. The two share a commitment to the destruction of Israel and both are classified as terrorist groups by most Western governments.

GAZA (Reuters) – Violence between Israel and Gaza militants flared anew Sunday after Egypt said it had brokered a truce to end attacks that have killed 10 Palestinian gunmen and an Israeli civilian in the past five days.

The frontier was largely quiet for most of the day, and a cease-fire appeared to be taking hold until Israeli aircraft attacked Palestinian militants who the Israeli military said were about to fire rockets from the southern Gaza Strip.

GAZA (Reuters) – An Egyptian-brokered truce failed to take effect as planned on Sunday to halt a flare-up of violence between Israel and Gaza militants in which nine Palestinian gunmen and an Israeli civilian have been killed, an Israeli military official said.

Three rockets were fired at Israel after the 6 a.m. (0400 GMT) deadline for the truce, the official said. Two were intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome missile shield and another slammed into southern Israel causing no casualties or damage.

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel’s air force bombed an Islamic Jihad base in the Hamas-governed Gaza Strip, killing five senior militants and drawing cross-border Palestinian rocket salvoes that killed an Israeli civilian.

The flare-up on Saturday smashed a relative lull in violence that had surrounded an Egyptian-mediated prisoner swap over a week ago between Israel and Islamist Hamas, which is negotiating a power-sharing deal with U.S.-backed Palestinian rivals.

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel’s air force bombed an Islamic Jihad base in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing a commander and four munitions experts from the Palestinian faction, officials on both sides said.

The strike in Rafah followed a Palestinian cross-border rocket launch this week which the Israelis blamed on Islamic Jihad. That attack caused no casualties but a rocket landed deep enough to set off sirens on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

GAZA (Reuters) – Israel’s air force bombed an Islamic Jihad camp in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday, killing a commander of the Palestinian faction and four of its munitions experts, officials on both sides said.

The strike in Rafah, a town in Gaza’s border with Egypt, followed a Palestinian cross-border rocket launch this week which the Israelis blamed on Islamic Jihad. That attack caused no casualties but a rocket landed deep enough to set off sirens on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.