Israeli jets bomb Gaza on fifth day as Egypt-led truce efforts linger on

Israeli aircraft have continued bombing besieged Gaza overnight, while Palestinian groups resumed rocket fire from the city as fighting entered a fifth day amid Egypt-led efforts to mediate a truce to the flare-up.

Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli raid on the outskirts of Nablus in the northern West Bank, where clashes had erupted, the Palestinian Health Ministry said on Saturday. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.

The fighting has so far left at least 35 Palestinians and one Israeli dead since violence broke out on Tuesday when Israeli forces launched a campaign against the Islamic Jihad armed group, saying it was planning attacks.

Israel's military said it struck the group's command centres and rocket launchers in its pre-dawn operations on Saturday. Grainy black and white aerial footage it released showed explosions and clouds of smoke rising from bombed sites.

A few hours later, Gaza armed groups fired rockets, setting off sirens and sending Israelis in border communities running to bomb shelters. There were no reports of casualties.

At least four women and six children have died in densely populated Gaza, an impoverished coastal territory blockaded by Israel and Egypt since 2007. Israel says four Palestinians were killed by misfired Gaza rockets, which Islamic Jihad has denied.

Six top Islamic Jihad commanders have been killed since the fighting began on Tuesday. The group has since fired almost 1,000 rockets, some deep into Israel. One woman was killed on Thursday when an apartment was struck by a rocket in a Tel Aviv suburb.

Worst violence since August

The violence extends more than a year of resurgent Israeli-Palestinian violence that has killed more than 140 Palestinians and at least 19 Israelis and foreigners since January.

The decision to renew air strikes on Gaza this week was authorised by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who returned to power in December alongside extreme-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish allies.

Daily life in the coastal territory, ruled by Hamas, has largely come to a standstill, while Israel has told its citizens near Gaza to stay close to bomb shelters.

This week's escalation is the worst since August when 49 Palestinians were killed in three days of fighting between Islamic Jihad and Israel.

An Israeli blockade imposed since then has made it impossible for the vast majority of its 2.3 million residents to leave the territory, where poverty and unemployment are rife.