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© Reuters/Ahmed ZakotA wounded Palestinian boy speaks on the phone with his family following an Israeli air strike in Rafah camp in the southern Gaza Strip October 7, 2012.
Gaza - Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip launched rockets at southern Israel on Monday in what they said was a response to an air strike that wounded two militants and eight bystanders on Sunday.

The armed wing of Hamas, the Palestinian Islamist faction that controls the Gaza Strip, said it was involved in the attack together with members of the Islamic Jihad militant group.

Hamas has not acknowledged launching rockets and mortars at Israel since June.

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed that some rockets had landed in areas close to the border with the Gaza Strip. There were no reports of casualties or damage, she said.

Gaza hospital officials said one militant thought to have been involved in the rocket attack had been wounded as a result of an Israeli response with tank fire east of the town of Rafah.

Residents of the town of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip also said an Israeli tank fired at the area from which the rockets were thought to have been launched, causing minor injuries to four children and damage to a mosque minaret and a water tower.

Sunday's air strike was aimed at two militants, one of whom was critically wounded, as was one of the bystanders.