Israel airstrikes in Gaza kill toddler amid escalating violence

Israel launched a series of airstrikes Tuesday in the Gaza Strip that killed a 3-year-old girl and wounded nine other people, one critically, medical sources said.

The strikes came after the shooting death of an Israeli man who an army spokeswoman said was doing maintenance work on the security fence in northern Gaza.

Witnesses in the occupied territory said that Palestinian fighters fired mortar rounds at Israeli military vehicles east of the fence near Nahal Oz and that an ambulance evacuated one person.

The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a Palestinian group, claimed responsibility for the shooting, according to Israeli media. 

"One of our snipers hit an Israeli officer, who is in the engineering forces of the Israeli army," Haaretz quoted the PRC as saying.

In a statement through a representative, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon expressed concern over the escalation in violence and condemned the killing of the Israeli civilian. The statement said the Secretary General "deplores the death of a young child in Gaza from Israeli retaliatory raids today as well as a number of Palestinian civilian casualties since Friday."

A series of explosions could be heard in Gaza City on Tuesday afternoon. Health Ministry official Ashraf al Kidra said one airstrike killed a young girl and wounded three relatives. The 3-year-old was identified as Hala Abu Sbeikha. Her mother and brother were also injured in the strike, in al Maghazi refugee camp, according to Maan News Agency. Kidra added that a man was killed in an Israeli attack in northern Gaza.

Armed groups in Gaza view Israel, which evacuated Jewish settlers and military from the territory in 2005, as an occupier because it controls most movements in and out of Gaza. Israel sees Gaza’s government, Hamas, as a terrorist organization bent on Israel’s destruction.

Recent severe flooding in Gaza exacerbated the humanitarian crisis in the region, and continuing unrest in neighboring Egypt has made made preventing an escalation of hostilities between Israel and Hamas even more difficult.

Palestinian media reported that a Palestinian man was shot and killed by Israeli fire in Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza just hours after the Israeli maintenance worker was killed.

The Jerusalem Post reported that a Palestinian man approached the border in northern Gaza, was shot in the leg by the Israeli military Tuesday and was taken to a Gaza hospital for treatment.

It is unclear whether those are separate incidents.

The Israeli Defense Forces employed the air force, tanks and infantry to launch a response against six targets in Gaza, according to the Jerusalem Post.

Israeli forces also launched three airstrikes on a military site belonging to al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement, between Khan Younis refugee camp and the city of Deir al-Balah and in the al-Atatra area of the northern Gaza Strip.

It is unknown if there were any casualties resulting from these strikes, Maan reported. The military gave no immediate details on the target of Tuesday’s airstrike.

Critics have often accused Israel of collectively punishing the civilian population of Gaza in retaliation for attacks by armed groups.

Israel and Hamas are bitter enemies, but both sides have largely observed a cease-fire that ended eight days of heavy fighting in November 2012.

The cease-fire has been tested periodically by Israeli airstrikes and Gazan rocket attacks. Tuesday's attacks were the latest in a series of violent incidents on both sides.

On Monday, Israel reported that a rocket fired from Gaza had landed in southern Israel. No damage or injuries were reported.

A Palestinian was shot and wounded by Israeli soldiers in southern Gaza on Friday. Thursday, another Palestinian was killed and four wounded along the heavily fortified fence.

The Gaza-based Palestinian Center for Human Rights said the man killed on Friday had been collecting scrap in the wasteland near the border. The Israeli army claimed he was trying to place a bomb.

Al Jazeera and wire services