"Palestinian factions have discussed the recent surge in Israeli attacks on Gaza. They are all committed to remaining calm in order to prevent the occupation forces from committing any more crimes against humanity"

At least two Palestinians were martyred on Sunday during a fresh Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip, a day after Palestinian factions said they were committed to calming tensions if Israel reciprocated.

"Two Palestinians were killed and another wounded Sunday morning in an Israeli air raid on targets east of Jabaliya," Adham Abu Senmya, a spokesman for the Gaza emergency services, told AFP.

The Israeli occupation army confirmed that Israel would begin deploying on Sunday its multi-million-dollar "Iron Dome" missile defense system in the occupied south in the wake of “rocket attacks from Gaza”.

The attack came a day after several Palestinian factions, including the Hamas resistance movement, expressed commitment to a national agreement to restore calm with Tel Aviv.

Hamas announced on Saturday that it was committed like other factions to calm and that it would not give Israel "any pretext to launch another war against Gaza." "Palestinian factions have discussed the recent surge in Israeli attacks on Gaza. They are all committed to remaining calm in order to prevent the occupation [Israeli] forces from committing any more crimes against humanity," said Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas official.

The Islamic Jihad movement, however, said it would not allow Israel to use the Gaza Strip for "target practice." "We will not accept the situation that Gaza is used for target practice by Israeli forces to show the military skills. We have stated it clearly that any attack will be met with strong response from the Islamic Jihad," a prominent Islamic Jihad official Khalid al-Batsh said.

Israeli forces have carried out large numbers of ground and air attacks on Gaza since the end of Operation Cast Lead against the Gaza Strip at the turn of 2009.

There was no immediate reaction from the Israeli government, but the cabinet is due to meet later Sunday morning.

Following Saturday's meeting, Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader, told AFP that "everybody confirmed that they respect the national consensus by calming things with the Zionist enemy." But he said this "depends on the nature of Israeli behavior, and we insist on the need to respond immediately to each escalation by the occupiers."
  
And Osama al-Haj Ahmed, a Popular Front leader, said "the factions confirmed their commitment to national consensus in order not to give the aggressors any pretext" for attacking.