Palestinian rockets intercepted over Israeli town

STORY: Rockets fired by Palestine were mostly intercepted by Israel's Iron Dome missile defence system. White smoke could be seen over the city of Sderot after the rocket interception.

Earlier on Sunday, Palestinian militants fired rockets towards Jerusalem, signaling new reach and resolve in the latest surge of violence between Israel and the Gaza Strip's militant groups.

On Saturday (August 6), a house in the small southern Israeli town was hit by a rocket launched by Gaza militants which caused damage to its roof and interior.

The Israeli military said some 600 rockets were launched from the Gaza Strip towards Israel since Friday (August 5), most of those that actually crossed into Israeli territory had been shot down by Iron Dome interceptors with a 97% success rate.

Overnight, Khaled Mansour, a senior commander of the militant Islamic Jihad group, was killed in southern Gaza along with two associates and five other civilians, according to the group. Islamic Jihad said it would "not let their blood dry before they bombard the settlements of the enemy."

About 30 Palestinians, at least a third of them civilians and two of them senior Islamic Jihad commanders, have been killed in a surge of fighting in Gaza over the weekend, while rocket salvoes have sent tens of thousands Israelis to shelters.

Israel launched the Gaza strikes on Friday in what it described as the pre-emption of an Islamic Jihad attack meant to avenge the arrest of a group leader in the occupied West Bank.