In the latest attack on Friday, fighters of the al-Quds Brigades fired a rocket at the port city of Ashdod.

Gazan rockets also made sirens go off in Eshkol and Sha'ar HaNegev in the northwestern part of the Negev desert.

Earlier in the day, the Israeli military admitted that two of its soldiers died in an operation by fighters of the Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in southern Gaza.

Hamas, however, said 15 Israeli forces were killed there.

While Tel Aviv puts the Israeli death toll from 25 days of attacks at 66, Hamas sources put the number at more 150.

Israeli warplanes have been pounding numerous sites in the Gaza Strip, since July 8, demolishing houses and burying families under the rubble. Israeli forces also began a ground offensive against the impoverished Palestinian land on July 17.

So far, more than 1,600 people have been killed and nearly 9,000 others injured by the Israeli regime’s offensive against the coastal sliver despite pressure from the international community.

Also on Friday, the United Nations and aid agencies in Gaza appealed for 369 million US dollars to tackle urgent humanitarian issues in the coastal enclave.

"The appeal focuses on supporting access to health and water, as well as addressing the needs of the estimated 440,000 people who have been displaced in the fighting," UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

"The situation for the civilians of Gaza and the UN Relief and Works Agency's (UNRWA) ability to deal with what has become a human displacement crisis of huge proportions is reaching breaking point," Dujarric added.

The UN official also cited the Zionist attacks on a number of UN schools during nearly four weeks of a massive onslaught on the coastal enclave, with Jabalia and Beit Hanoun being the latest.

"To date, there have been six incidents at five different UNRWA schools housing displaced people which have been directly hit by Israeli shelling… An estimated 106 UNRWA installations have been damaged since June 1, 2014,” he said.

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