(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-01-17 21:48

Gaza City -- Militants in Hamas-ruled Gaza bombarded southern Israel with rockets Thursday and Israel pounded back with air and ground fire, the latest spate of violence that has pushed peace efforts to the sidelines.

Israeli leaders made clear they had no intention of pulling back until the rocket assaults on Israeli border communities halt.

Twenty-three Palestinians were killed in fierce clashes in the seaside territory on Tuesday and Wednesday, including the son of Gaza's Hamas strongman, Mahmoud Zahar, and a 12-year-old boy who died along with his father and uncle in a bungled Israeli airstrike. A foreign volunteer on an Israeli border farm was killed by a Hamas sniper.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas' bitter rival and Israel's moderate partner in newly resumed peace talks, denounced what he called the Israeli "massacre" in Gaza.

Hamas, the Islamic militant group that rejects Israel's right to exist, has intensified its direct involvement in the assaults on Israel as a result of the escalating violence. The group, which had let other militant factions take the lead in attacking Israel since it wrested control of Gaza in June, claimed it fired 24 rockets early Thursday, after launching 79 rockets and mortars on Wednesday.

Other groups said they fired an additional four rockets and eight mortar rounds.

Israeli police said 18 rockets and mortars landed in Israel by midday. One rocket slammed into the side of a house, slightly injuring two people, police said.

Israelis fired at northern Gaza from the air and ground, targeting rocket squads and areas militants frequently use to fire projectiles. No injuries were reported, Hamas security said.

"We have stepped up and will further step up the pressure and the attacks on the terror activists in the Gaza Strip, and if necessary, we will step up the attacks even further," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Wednesday night. "It isn't simple, but our goal is to stop the Qassam rocket fire."

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