Eight Gazans were killed yesterday, among them two minors and four militants, as tensions soared on the border with Israel after days of rocket fire and retaliatory air strikes.

The victims died in two separate Israeli attacks on the eastern part of Gaza City following a day of bloodshed and violence.

Two of the dead were aged 11 and 16, and four were from the armed wing of the radical Islamic Jihad movement, medical and militant sources said.

Four of the victims died when an Israeli shell hit a family home in Shejaiya, medics said.

Several hours later, another four people were killed – all of them militants – in an air strike on the nearby Zeitun neighbourhood.

The surge in bloodshed follows days of rising cross-border violence, which has ramped up tensions between Israel and Gaza’s Islamist Hamas rulers and again raised fears of a large-scale Israeli military incursion.

The latest attack took place in Zeitun, killing four members of the Al-Quds Brigade, the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, a group spokesman said, naming them as Mohammed Abed, Saada Heles, Adham al-Harazine and Mohammed Atya al-Harazine.