JERUSALEM
Around 70 rockets have been fired on Israel from the Gaza Strip on Saturday, an Israeli source said.
One of the rockets killed an Israeli, raising the death toll in the country since the beginning of military operations on Gaza on July 7 to three, the source said.
He added that rocket attacks from Gaza also left four Israelis injured in the southern city of Dimona so far.
Israeli police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said earlier in the day that a 32-year-old Dimona resident succumbed to wounds he sustained earlier from a Gaza rocket attack.
Rosenfeld added on his Twitter account that four other residents of the southern Israeli city were still receiving treatment.
Israelis sources, meanwhile, told Israel's Channel 2 that the country's Iron Dome defense system had managed to intercept nine out of the 70 rockets fired on Israel from Gaza on Saturday.
The Israeli army said earlier that its troops had discovered 34 tunnels since a ground incursion has been staged into Gaza on Thursday.
However, Qassam Brigades, the military arm of the resistance movement Hamas, said the tunnels were specified for training.
At least 339 people have been killed and nearly 2390 injured in relentless Israeli attacks on the Gaza Strip, according to Palestinian health officials.
Since July 7, Israel has been pounding the Gaza Strip, home to some 1.8 million Palestinians, with crippling air and naval bombardments with the ostensible aim of halting rocket fire emanating from the strip.
On Thursday night, Israel stepped up its offensive to include ground operations, sending troops into the embattled coastal enclave.
Israel's military operation, dubbed "Operation Protective Edge," is the self-proclaimed Jewish state's third major offensive against Gaza in the last six years.
By Alaa Rimawi
www.aa.com.tr/en
