Beirut, Sep 26 (Prensa Latina) Israeli warplanes continued fierce air strikes on Palestinian targets in and around Gaza on Monday, despite a Hamas pledge to halt rocket attacks.


Palestinian security officials said Monday that Israeli helicopters fired rockets at targets in Gaza City and the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunus.



A building belonging to the Palestinian Authority in Khan Yunus was hit by three rockets, said officials, and an Israeli air strike early on Monday knocked out power to the eastern part of Gaza City and caused damage to several buildings.



Palestinian medical sources said four bystanders were injured in the attack. A metal workshop, which the Israeli army said was used by Hamas to make weapons, was also destroyed in the attack.



Factory owner Ali Shaaban said it was the fourth time the workshop had been targeted. Shaaban said he produced engine parts for vehicles and generators, not weapons.



Israeli warplanes also struck unidentified targets around Gaza City as well as the southern towns of Rafah and Khan Yunus, and an access road leading to a rocket-launching site in northern Gaza.



The Israeli army said it was pushing forward with an offensive against Palestinian resistance groups.



The attacks came hours after a senior member of the Islamic Jihad resistance group, Muhammad Khalil, was killed by an Israeli air strike.



Khalil was riding in a Mercedes along a coastal Gaza road when a missile fired from an Israeli aircraft killed him and his bodyguard.



Israel continued with its air campaign despite a call by Hamas leader Mahmud al-Zahar to end the group's rocket attacks.



Zahar spoke at a news conference late on Sunday, saying his group remained committed to a seven-month-old cease-fire and that he wanted to prevent further Israeli attacks.



"We call on our military groups to stop their operations against the enemy from the Gaza Strip," al-Zahar said. The Hamas leader also renewed a pledge to end Hamas' military-style parades celebrating the Israeli withdrawal.



An Israeli air strike on Sunday partially destroyed a school and injured 15 people, many of them children.



The blast struck the al-Arkam school, established by the late founder of Hamas, Shaikh Ahmad Yassin, which is situated in the Tufah neighbourhood -a densely populated area and a Hamas stronghold.



The blast collapsed part of the school and caused damage to at least five nearby homes.