Palestinian militant group al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades threatened on Wednesday to attack Israeli embassies if Israel continued a broad military offensive in the Gaza Strip.

The Brigades, an armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement, warned that Israeli embassies would be targeted in the coming few days if Israel carried out "massacres against Palestinian civilians, especially women and children."

But the statement did not specify where the would-be targeted embassies were located.

The Brigades made the warning as the Israeli army started on early Wednesday its first major ground operation into the Gaza Strip since Israel withdrew troops and settlers from the entire Gaza Strip last summer after 38 years of occupation.

Meanwhile, the Brigades claimed responsibility in another statement for launching two homemade rockets onto the southern Israeli city of Sderot on Wednesday.

In response, Israeli tanks fired a salvo of artillery shells at northern Gaza that landed on open areas. No injuries were reported.

The Israeli military operation in Gaza, dubbed "Summer Rain", is aimed to free a 19-year-old Israeli soldier who was abducted by Palestinian militants during a cross-border raid on an Israeli army post on Sunday.

Two Israeli soldiers and two Palestinian militants were killed during the Sunday gunbattle.

Source: Xinhua