BRUSSELS, October 31, 2011 (WAFA) – European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton held the Islamic Jihad responsible for the violence that broke out in the past two days at the Gaza borders with Israel, according to a statement published on Sunday.

“I am very concerned at the renewed exchange of fire in the Gaza Strip and the south of Israel following the firing of rockets by Islamic Jihad from Gaza into Israel,” she said.

“I wholeheartedly condemn the indiscriminate targeting of civilians wherever they are,” she added, calling “on all sides to respect the ceasefire brokered by Egypt.”

An Israeli air strike on Rafah, in southern Gaza, on Saturday killed five members of the Islamic Jihad organization and ended more than two months of calm, when it provoked a barrage of rocket firing from Gaza at towns in southern Israel.

Israel responded with more air strikes, the latest of which was at midnight Sunday, two hours after an Egyptian brokered ceasefire, accepted by the Palestinian factions, was supposed to go into effect.

Medical sources in Gaza said the latest strike killed Yousef Abu Abdo and Ali Aqqad, both in their 20s, whose bodies were found Monday morning in Khan Younis when the civil defense was able to comb the area looking for people killed or wounded in the air strike.

The two were said to be members of al-Ansar Brigades, the military wing of al-Ahrar movement.

The killing of two Khan Younis residents brings the total number of Palestinians killed in the Israeli air raids to 12. The rockets fired from Gaza into Israel killed one Israeli and caused damage to buildings.

M.S.