Senior Israeli military officers said that the current Israeli operation into the northern Gaza Strip would not halt rocket attacks by Palestinian militants although it might diminish them, local newspaper Ha'aretz reported on Friday.

The Israeli army planned to carry out a number of airstrikes on the outskirts of built-up areas in an effort to deter rocket launching cells, the officers were quoted as saying.

On Friday morning, the Israel Air Force renewed air raids against Palestinian gunmen in northern Gaza after a bloody day of clashes that left an Israeli soldier and 19 Palestinians dead including several civilians.

Thursday's confrontation marked the most fierce day of fighting between Israeli troops and Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip since Israel withdrew forces and settlers from it last summer after 38 years of occupation.

The Israeli army has expanded a broad ground operation in Gaza aimed to rescue an Israeli soldier abducted by Gazan militants on June 25 and stop the Palestinian rocket firing.

The Israeli security cabinet also authorized the army on Wednesday to set up a "security zone" in northern Gaza to prevent rocket launching.

The move came after a homemade rocket hit the center of the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon for the first time on Tuesday evening, causing damages to a high school building but no injuries.

It is the furthest north in Israel that a rocket fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza has reached.

Hamas' armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Yet despite the escalated military move in Gaza, Palestinian militants managed to fire a rocket from northern Gaza onto Israel, which landed near the southern Israeli town of Sderot.

No injuries were caused.

Source: Xinhua