The Israel-Gaza Strip border. Photo: Mary Madigan via Wikimedia Commons.

An Israeli air strike killed a Hamas gunman and wounded one on Thursday, Palestinian medical officials said, as tensions across the Gaza Strip border simmered.

Israel said the strike was launched in response to a bomb attack on a military vehicle on the Gaza frontier on Wednesday, in which there were no casualties. When gunmen shot at the aircraft, they were fired upon, the Israeli military said.

Both sides are bracing for Palestinian demonstrations at the Gaza border on Friday — the third round of weekly protests that are scheduled to peak in mid-May, the 70th anniversary of Israel’s founding, which Palestinians mourn.

Israel deems the sometimes violent demonstrations — in which 30 rioters have been killed — an effort by Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group that rules Gaza, to stoke Palestinian hostility toward it and provide cover for potential attacks across the border fence.