Palestinian ruling Hamas condemned on Sunday recent Israeli military strikes in Gaza, which killed two farmers and five militants over the weekend.

"The Israeli crimes against our people are continuing," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a written statement delivered to the press.

Two Palestinian farmers were killed in separate Israeli shelling in northern Gaza Strip in the past two days.

On Friday, an Israeli drone fired a missile targeting a training camp used by Palestinian militants, killing five members of the Popular Resistance Committees, which has been behind most of the homemade rocket firing upon southern Israel from the Gaza Strip.

Abu Zuhri affirmed the right of Palestinians to defend themselves and condemned what he called the double-standard policy of the international community.

"They stand silent before the killing of Palestinian civilians, but they take up arms against the Palestinian reaction to the Israeli crimes," Abu Zuhri said.

Hamas, a radical militant faction that calls for destroying Israel in its political charter, came to power in late March after its election win in a January Palestinian poll.

It has not bowed to international pressure to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept previous peace deals, which led to major western aid cutoff and a deepened financial crisis in the Palestinian territories.

Source: Xinhua