Palestinian militants of the Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas), fired dozens of homemade mortar shells Saturday on Jewish settlements and Israeli army posts in the Gaza Strip.

The flurry of mortar shell attacks came shortly after Israeli soldiers shot dead three Palestinian teenage boys in the town of Rafah near the borders between the southern Gaza Strip and Egypt.

The brigades said in a leaflet that its militants fired 23 homemade missiles and rockets and mortar shells at Jewish settlements and Israeli army posts in the Gaza Strip to revenge the killing of three Palestinians in Rafah.

The group said the shellings were targeted at the settlements of Naveh Dekalim and Nitser Hazani and Israeli army posts in the southern Gaza Strip.

There was no report of casualties yet.

The deadly Gaza shooting marks the first time that Israeli troops sprayed gunfire at Palestinians in the Gaza Strip since a conditional ceasefire was declared in mid March.