Baby wounded in mortar attack in Gaza

A baby has been seriously wounded by Palestinian militants who fired mortar rounds at a Jewish settlement bloc in the Gaza Strip.

The 10-month-old boy was rushed to a hospital in Beersheba, southern Israel. An Israeli woman suffered less serious wounds and was also being treated.

The mortar attack came eight days after a 10-month-old Israeli girl was shot dead by a Palestinian gunman in the West Bank city of Hebron, provoking outrage among Israelis.

The attackers, who fired three mortars at the Gush Katif settlement bloc in southern Gaza, may have fired from the nearby Rafah area, where a Palestinian militant was killed a day earlier by Israeli helicopters

Despite a US plea for calm, Israelis and Palestinians traded fire overnight in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, with each side blaming the other for the surge of violence in recent days.

The shooting carried on into the night, with Palestinians firing two mortars at an Israeli industrial area on the northern border of the Gaza Strip, the army said.

Israeli troops came under fire in three additional locations in Gaza and the West Bank and returned fire, the army added.