GAZA: Days, after the United States called for calm, Israeli aircraft, attacked Gaza on Thursday in response to Palestinian rocket fire, but there was no immediate indication of a wider escalation in violence after days of tension.

The exchange followed a predictable pattern, indicating neither side was looking for a wider conflict, and there were no reports of serious casualties.

Separately, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich announced that Israel, which collects taxes on behalf of the Palestinian Authority (PA), would use PA funds to compensate Palestinian militant attack victims with 100 million shekels ($29 million), offsetting stipends paid by the PA to the families of attackers.

The PA did not respond right away.

In retaliation for Wednesday's rocket launch, the military claimed that its airstrikes on Hamas-controlled sites used for manufacturing rockets and weapons targeted those facilities. Hamas is a militant organization that rules the Gaza Strip. The rocket fire on Wednesday was not attributed to any Palestinian organizations.

Before dawn on Thursday, sirens in Israeli towns and villages near the Gaza Strip warned of incoming rocket fire as powerful explosions shook buildings and lit up the night sky over Gaza.

The airstrikes and the "systematic aggression" against Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails, according to the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), prompted the group to fire some of the rockets.

After a Palestinian gunman killed seven people near a synagogue on the outskirts of Jerusalem and an Israeli raid in the West Bank killed 10 Palestinians, including eight militants, the exchange of fire highlighted the tensions between Israel and the Palestinians.

The violence in the West Bank steadily increased after a string of deadly Palestinian attacks in Israel, which prompted increased Israeli raids against gunmen and made last year the deadliest in more than ten years.

King Abdullah of Jordan and U.S. President Joe Biden met at the White House on Thursday to discuss "opportunities and mechanisms to reduce tensions, particularly in the West Bank," according to a statement from the White House.

In closing out a trip to the area on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged both sides to return to calmness and reiterated Washington's support for a two-state solution to the long-running conflict.

Barbara Leaf, a top Middle East diplomat for the United States, and Hady Amr, a special representative for Palestinian issues, stayed behind to continue de-escalation negotiations between the parties and were scheduled to meet with Palestinian officials on Thursday.

Ned Price, a spokesman for the U.S. State Department, said on Thursday that "they are there to support the parties and the steps the parties will have to take to break this cycle of violence."

After the far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who is in charge of prisons, said he would move forward with plans to make conditions for Palestinian prisoners more difficult, activists in Gaza rallied in support of the women prisoners held by Israel.

Ben-Gvir has vowed to crack down on "benefits and indulgences" provided to Palestinian prisoners and has issued orders to limit amenities like bread ovens run by prisoners in some prisons.

The most recent Ben-Gvir decisions, according to Hamas official Mushir Al-Masri, "added fuel to the fire."

According to Masri, "the Palestinian resistance has always prioritized the issue of prisoners, and the screams of female prisoners inside the jails of the Zionist enemy risk a difficult confrontation in which the Palestinian resistance will not stand handcuffed."

Separately, a representative of the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad announced that a delegation from the organization's political office, led by the exiled faction's leader Ziyad al-Nakhala, would travel to Cairo on Friday for discussions that would touch on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The official, who wished to remain unnamed, said the visit was planned before the most recent violence, but he added that it was inevitable that the current escalation in Gaza and the West Bank would come up.

According to a Palestinian official familiar with Egyptian mediation, Cairo has also invited Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of Hamas and current resident between Qatar and Turkey, for separate talks the following week.