Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Jonathan Conricus on Sunday disputed the Gaza Health Ministry's statement that an Israeli strike killed the Palestinian woman, 37, and her daughter, Seba Abu Arar, in their east Gaza City home the previous day.

Conricus says Israeli forces have killed eight militants amid strikes against some 220 targets in the Gaza Strip.

He says these were all deemed "high-quality," legitimate militant sites, including the homes of militants in which militant activity was taking place. He says he has no knowledge of civilians being harmed by Israeli fire.

In the new round of violence, militants in Gaza have fired over 400 rockets into southern Israel in the last 24 hours, killing one Israeli man, Moshe Agadi.

After being struck by shrapnel on Sunday, the 58-year-old died of his wounds, marking the first Israeli casualty from rocket fire since the 2014 war with Hamas militants.

Israel's Iron Dome defence system intercepted dozens of the projectiles but four Israelis were wounded, including an elderly man who's in a critical condition.

On Saturday morning, Gaza's Health Ministry said a 22-year-old Palestinian man was killed by an Israeli air strike, and 40 other Palestinians were wounded.

Late on Saturday health officials said a 25-year-old man was killed by an Israeli drone missile as he was travelling on a motorbike in northern Gaza. At dawn, two Islamic Jihad militants were killed by an air strike in central Gaza Strip, the group said.

The fighting, the most intense between the sides in months, came as leaders from Hamas, the militant group that rules Gaza, and the smaller armed faction Islamic Jihad, were in Cairo for talks with Egyptian mediators aimed at preventing a fraying cease-fire from collapsing altogether.

It also comes at a sensitive time for Israel, which is to mark its Memorial Day and Independence Day holiday this week, before hosting the Eurovision song contest in the middle of the month.

Prolonged fighting could overshadow Eurovision and potentially deter international travellers from coming in for the festive event.

For Gazans, the violence continued as they prepare to begin the Muslim holy fasting month of Ramadan on Monday.

Israel and Hamas, an Islamic group that opposes Israel's existence, have fought three wars and dozens of smaller flare-ups of violence since Hamas seized control of Gaza in 2007.

They engaged in several days of heavy fighting in March before Egypt brokered a truce in which Israel agreed to ease a crippling blockade on Gaza in exchange for a halt in rocket fire.

In recent days, Hamas accused Israel of reneging on its pledges.

Australian Associated Press