Israel pounded Gaza with air strikes Friday, killing more than 15 people, including a top militant, and triggering a barrage of retaliatory rocket fire from the territory. Israel said it was targeting the Islamic Jihad militant group amid days of heightened tensions following the arrest of a senior militant in the occupied West Bank earlier this week.
Palestinian militants launched a barrage of rockets hours later as air raid sirens wailed in central and southern Israel, pushing the two sides closer to all-out war. Islamic Jihad claimed to have fired 100 rockets.
