Five Hamas gunmen and a school teacher were killed by the Israeli military after the latest incursion of troops backed by tanks and warplanes into the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday. The killing of the six Gazans was confirmed by the ruling Palestinian Islamist faction as well as the hospital officials said.

Local eyewitnesses claim that the Israelis used tanks and heavy bulldozers to get through the border fence near the town of Jabalya in the coastal territory. Beit Hanoun, a community frequently used by Palestinian militants to fire rockets into Israel, was also a target in Thursday’s raid.

According to Hamas, five of its militants died fighting the Israeli troops. An Israeli missile hit a school in Beit Hanoun. The explosion killed a teacher and wounded two of his colleagues.

The fresh wave of Israeli raids in the Gaza Strip comes after Hamas claimed responsibility for the Palestinian suicide bombing that killed a woman in Israel on Monday. Hamas hadn’t claimed such an attack since 2004.

The numerous raids carried out by the Israeli military in Gaza have the goal of countering or eliminating the cross-border rocket fire by Hamas and other militant groups.

Five rockets launched from Gaza landed in Israel just Thursday, the Israeli military said. The blast caused by one of the rockets badly wounded two young sisters while they were playing outside their home. The girls are aged 12 and 2. Their mother was taken to a hospital for shock.

The Hamas militants managed to take control of the region in June after routing secular Fatah forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The current events might escalate into large scale combat that could make the U.S.-led Mideast peace efforts futile.

As Israel air strike killed seven police officers in Gaza, Hamas stepped up its rocket barrages at southern Israel and one of its numerous rockets hit the Kibbutz Beeri, a communal village about four miles from the border fence.