Security officials in the Gaza Strip reported four gunmen were killed in an IDF airstrike in southern Gaza on Thursday evening. The Palestinian sources said the four, members of the Islamic Jihad, had been engaged in an exchange of fire with Israeli ground troops near the town of Khan Younis a short hour after a Qassam rocket fired from Gaza crashed into a house in Sderot.
The sources said an Israeli aircraft intervened and fired a missile at the gunmen.
At least nine rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza on Thursday.
In Sderot two houses sustained direct hits from Qassams while a third rocket, which also landed in a residential neighborhood, ignited a small blaze.
One man suffered moderate shrapnel wounds to his face and limbs. Several others were treated for shock by paramedics.