GAZA, May 5 (Xinhua) -- The armed wing of Islamic Jihad movement al-Quds Brigades announced that its militants on Sunday launched a new kind of rockets with a big destructive power into southern Israel.
The group quoted a senior military leader, who asked to remain anonymous, on its website as saying that launching the rockets came as a response to the Israeli targeting of civilians, children and civilian buildings in the Gaza Strip.
"Israel is hiding this truth and doesn't show the places that were struck by our rockets," the Islamic Jihad militant said, adding that "we leave this fact for the coming days to be unveiled, mainly what happened in Ashkelon."
He affirmed that his militant group "is ready to expand the circle of fire, in terms of quality and quantity ... We are still in the beginning of the battle."
Meanwhile, the Islamic Jihad said in a press statement that "the Palestinian armed resistance is ready to get engaged in an open confrontation and is able to join a large front in order to defend our land and our people."
The Israeli media reported earlier that the Palestinian militant groups in the Gaza Strip, mainly Hamas and Islamic Jihad, have developed their arsenal and have now unique and special military abilities.
Earlier on Sunday, the Joint Chamber of Military Operations, which comprises Hamas and Islamic Jihad, said in a statement that its militants fired rockets from the Gaza Strip into the southern Israeli city of Beer Sheba.
The statement said that targeting large Israeli cities "is a response to (Israeli) targets of homes of Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip."
A new wave of tension broke out on Saturday morning when Gaza militants fired barrages of rockets into Israel in revenge for killing four Palestinians, including two demonstrators and two militants in the Gaza Strip on Friday.
The Israeli army responded to rockets firing and killed 10 Palestinians, including four civilians and six militants.
Its warplanes also destroyed several buildings as well as training facilities and posts that belong to militant groups in the Gaza Strip.
