The rocket on Gaza strikes a bus and Israel launches air strikes on the Palestinian enclave

JERUSALEM – Israel has launched Monday a barrage of air strikes on the Gaza Strip after a rocket fired from the enclave controlled by the activists hit an Israeli bus.

Gaza health authorities said three Palestinians were killed and six wounded

. The Israeli army said that about 200 rockets had been thrown from the Gaza Strip onto Israel, including about sixty intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system. The attack launched from Gaza seemed to be a revenge after an Israeli raid killed seven Palestinian militants on Sunday.

Israel's national emergency services said the strike on the bus left a 19-year-old man in critical condition. United Hatzalah, chief of the volunteer-based emergency service, said the crews were facing a high number of calls from people suffering from injuries and emotional shock.

Israeli south as part of the latest escalation of tensions between Israel and Hamas, the Palestinian militant group that has been controlling Gaza since 2007.

"Our fighter jets began to hit terror targets across the Strip. Gaza, " the Israel Defense Forces on Twitter. Until now, the Israeli army has hit more than 20 Hamas military targets in Gaza.

The offices of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met in the evening with security and security officials from the army, a trip to Paris.

A few hours earlier, an Israeli army officer and seven Palestinians, including a Hamas commander, were killed after an incursion by Israeli special forces into Gaza.

Clashes resulted in Israeli air strikes and rocket fire from Gaza to Israel

The Israeli army provided little details of the reasons for the raid . But the IDF tweeted that the "special operation" was not meant to kill or kidnap terrorists, but to enhance Israeli security ".

The escalation has led the Israeli authorities to close a railway line between two neighboring Gaza communities. The school was also canceled in the Israeli communities around Gaza

Israel has waged three wars in Gaza over the past decade – the last in 2014 – and the fear of a new conflict is in grow up.

Violence erupted Last month, Israeli planes bombed about 80 targets across the Gaza Strip after activists threw rockets at Israel, but a truce calmed what looked like a dangerous escalation. violence. 19659010] Egypt, Qatar and the United Nations are trying to negotiate a long-term ceasefire in the region.

Lawahez Jabari brought back from Jerusalem; Yuliya Talmazan from London.

Yuliya Talmazan

Yuliya Talmazan is a London-based journalist.

Lawahez Jabari

Lawahez Jabari is a producer based in Tel Aviv. It covers the Middle East conflict – both Israeli and Palestinian – for more than a decade.

Associated Press contributed.