Israel-Gaza Latest: Airstrikes Kill 6+ Palestinians, 2 Egypt Soldiers after Border Attack Slays 8 Israelis (Al Jazeera English)

UPDATE 1025 GMT: Israeli officials say one person has been seriously injured and others hurt in the Israeli town of Ashdod by a rocket, one of 12 fired from the Gaza Strip into southern Israel.

Israeli reports said rockets were fired at Ashkelon, Beersheva, Kiryat Gat, and Ashdod.

Al Jazeera English summarises a deadly Thursday:

Israeli aircraft have struck Hamas security installations in Gaza, killing at least six Palestinians, in further retaliation for attacks along the Egyptian border in which eight Israelis died.

Gaza residents said three compounds controlled by the Hamas group that rules the enclave were hit in the overnight raids on positions in Rafah.

Five of those killed were members of the Popular Resistance Committees, while the sixth was a young boy. Medical officials said that 17 others had been wounded.

The PRC confirmed to the AFP news agency that its leader had been killed, vowing that it would take revenge "against everything and everyone".

The Israeli military said that at least ten rockets had been fired from Gaza into southern Israel after the aerial bombing of Rafah. It said that two rockets fired at the city of Ashdod "caused damage and injuries at a synagogue and school", according to a statement.

An Israeli drone also hit the Zeitoun neighbourhood of Gaza city on Friday morning, but medical sources confirmed to Al Jazeera that it caused no casualties.

Israeli security forces beefed up security in the wake of the strikes, Al Jazeera correspondent Cal Perry reported from Jerusalem. He said that thousands of people were seen marching towards the mosque ahead of midday prayers on Friday, and that hundreds of Israeli police officers had also been deployed.

Eilat attacks

Israeli military commanders said six civilians and two soldiers were killed in a series of assaults by gunmen that targeted two buses, a car and an army vehicle on a desert road north of Israel's Red Sea resort of Eilat on Thursday.

The military said seven gunmen were killed in southern Israel, including two who blew themselves up in suicide attacks on one of the buses and in a confrontation with soldiers.

Israel said the attackers had infiltrated from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip via Egypt's Sinai desert, vowing to "hunt down" the perpetrators.

Brigadier-General Yoav Mordechai, the Israeli military's chief spokesman, told Israel Radio that the military had received intelligence reports of a possible attack ahead of Thursday's assault, and that military deployments had been reinforced.

He said that the complex desert terrain and porous nature of the border had complicated the Israeli army's mission, however.

Egyptians soldiers killed

Meanwhile, two Egyptian policemen were killed when the Israeli aircraft opened fire near the Rafah border town with the Palestinian Gaza Strip, the official MENA news agency quoted an Egyptian military official as saying.

"An Israeli plane was pursuing infiltrators on the other side of the border until they reached Rafah and fired at them. There were several Central Security members there and they were hit by the gunfire," the official told MENA.

Security officials said the incident took place south of Rafah, along the border with Israel.

They identified the Israeli aircraft as an Apache gunship that had been tracking the armed groups.

MENA quoted a military official as saying that troops were combing the border area and beefing up security after Thursday's attacks, which came as the military conducts a week long operation to uproot armed groups in Sinai.

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