Special report: Crisis between Israel and Palestine

    GAZA, July 3 (Xinhua) -- The armed wing of the Islamic Jihad (Holy War) said on Monday that it fired two homemade rockets into southern and western Israeli communities.

    The Saraya al-Qudes said in a statement that its fighters launched two "Qudes-3 rockets" into Sderot in southwestern Israel and a nearby village.

    The statement said the shelling came in response to the ongoing Israeli military escalation in the Gaza Strip.

    Meanwhile, the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the armed wing of the Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for firing "a developed rocket" into a position of Israeli troops who were massing just outside Gaza-Israel border to prepare for a ground operation in northern Gaza Strip.

    The brigades also said it fired four rockets at Sderot.

    Since an Israeli soldier was abducted by Palestinian militants on June 25, Israel launched a large-scale military operation in the Gaza Strip to press for release of the soldier. Enditem