GAZA, Feb. 24 (Xinhua) -- The Palestinians expressed fear on Monday that the tension, ongoing for two days, between Israel and militant groups in the Gaza Strip, may lead to a large-scale military escalation.
Elham al-Aqqad, in her 40s, a resident of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, was busy all the time watching her children and asking them to be away from windows to avoid glass fragments hitting them.
"The sounds of bombs and explosions are scaring us and I imagine that I may lose one of my children at any moment if this tension grows to large-scale escalation," al-Aqqad, mother of three, told Xinhua.
She said "when Israeli warplanes bomb the Gaza Strip, it doesn't differentiate militants from civilians," adding that "I follow up the news on television and social media to know more details about what is going on."
Mohammad Ismail, a man in his 30s and a resident of Gaza city, told Xinhua that he spent last night with a group of his friends in front of his home listening to local radio stations to see if there will be a cease-fire or not.
"People's fears for an Israeli escalation are growing every day, especially before holding the parliamentary elections in Israel which are scheduled next Monday," said Ismail.
He expressed hope that Israel and Gaza militant groups, mainly Hamas and Islamic Jihad, could reach a cease-fire soon "because the living situation in Gaza is so hard and the people can't bear another large-scale war."
Tension in the Hamas-ruled coastal enclave began early on Sunday when Israeli soldiers stationed on the borders between eastern Gaza Strip and Israel shot and killed a militant member of the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
The scenes of pulling the body of the Islamic Jihad militant Mohammad Naem by an Israeli army bulldozer had sparked outrage among the Palestinians.
In response, Saraya al-Quds, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, fired barrages of rockets later on Sunday into southern Israel. Israeli war jets had in return launched missiles at military posts and locations that belong to the group.
Israeli war jets also attacked a military base that belongs to the group south of Damascus in Syria, leaving six killed, two of whom were members of the group.
On Monday, the group's militants fired more barrages of rockets from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel, and Israeli war jets then struck more sites and locations in the Gaza Strip.
In the Gaza Strip, home to 2 million Palestinians, people do not want any war similar to the one in 2014 which lasted 50 days.
Since 2014, Egypt and the United Nations usually intervene and broker a cease-fire between the two sides before tension escalates and leads to a large-scale military offensive.
