The Israeli army on Wednesday reopened the two crossings into the Gaza Strip which were closed as a punitive measure after militants fired five rockets over the border, a statement said.

"Kerem Shalom and Erez were reopened this morning and are operating as normal," the army said in a statement. The two crossings were closed on Monday.

Thousands of Gazans gave an ecstatic welcome to Abdelmalek Sellal on Tuesday as the 23-year-old Palestinian singer returned home after winning this year's Arab Idol talent competition.

Young and old waved Palestinian flags and held up posters of Mohammed Assaf, raising banners congratulating him on his win in Beirut on Saturday, when he beat off stiff competition from fellow singers from across the Arab world.

Israeli warplanes hit Islamic Jihad targets in central and southern Gaza early on Monday after Palestinian rocket fire struck Israel, sources from both sides of the conflict said.

The raids came just hours after militants fired five rockets at southern Israel, two of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome anti-missile system, the military said.

Hamas hanged two men accused of collaborating with Israel on Saturday, a statement from the interior ministry of the Islamist movement's government in Gaza said.

The ministry said that it had executed the two men in accordance "with what Palestinian law stipulates,” identifying the two men as "the collaborator with the occupation A.G., 49, and the collaborator H.K., 43."

A Palestinian found guilty of "collaborating" with Israel has been sentenced to death by a military court in the Gaza Strip, the interior ministry of Hamas, which controls the territory, said on Thursday.

The defendant, identified only by his initials KC, was "condemned to capital punishment by hanging for collaborating with the Zionist occupier," ministry spokesman Islam Shahwan announced on Facebook.

A military court in the Gaza Strip has sentenced a Palestinian to death for collaborating with Israel and another to life with hard labor, the Hamas interior ministry said on Thursday.

The 43-year-old, identified only by his initials AH, "has been sentenced to capital punishment for acts of collaboration wit the occupation", a ministry statement said.

Egyptian police closed the Rafah border crossing with Gaza on Friday in protest at the kidnapping of colleagues in the Sinai peninsula, a security source and witnesses said.

Three policemen and four soldiers were abducted on Thursday by armed men who are demanding the release of a group of prisoners held at a police station in the North Sinai town of El-Arish, official media reported.

Junk-food starved Gazans can now order Kentucky Fried Chicken to go thanks to a new smuggling service which brings takeout from Egypt via a network of underground tunnels.

It's not exactly "fast" -- taking several hours to arrive, with the Palestinian delivery company behind it charging hefty prices to cover the cost of fuel and transport.

Militants in the Gaza Strip fired a projectile that hit an open field in southern Israel on Wednesday causing no damage or casualties, police told Agence France Presse.

Spokeswoman Luba Samri said it struck in the Eshkol region. A military spokeswoman could not say whether the projectile was a mortar shell or rocket.

The International Criminal Court has opened a preliminary probe into Israel's deadly raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010, the prosecutor's office said Tuesday.

"My office will be conducting a preliminary examination in order to establish whether the criteria for opening an investigation are met," Fatou Bensouda said in a statement issued from the court based in The Hague.