ME truce in tatters

"Revenge, revenge," shouted thousands of mourners in Gaza at the funerals of four of the gunmen killed on Friday in missile strikes launched after a barrage of Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel, which killed one woman.

"When Palestinian blood is shed, there is no protection for Zionist blood," said Hamas leader Ismail Haniyah.

The flare-up of violence, which began on Tuesday when a Palestinian suicide bomber killed five Israelis in an attack in the town of Netanya, has seriously undermined a truce declared by Israel and the Palestinian Authority in February.

It has also raised the prospect of a disruption to Israel's planned evacuation of 9,000 settlers from all 21 settlements in Gaza and four in the West Bank next month which had stirred new hopes of reviving Middle East peace.

Israel stepped up its air strikes on Friday night, pounding three workshops the army said were used by Hamas to produce weapons and officials vowed to keep targeting gunmen to prevent rocket attacks ahead of next month's pullout from occupied Gaza.

Militants hit back hours later, firing two rockets at the Israeli town of Sderot, near Gaza on Saturday. One rocket slammed into the courtyard of a house but nobody was hurt.

Palestinian officials said the Israeli missile strikes were unjustified and would upset a calm declared by militant groups in February.