JERUSALEM  A commander of the Hamas military wing was killed in an Israeli missile strike in central Gaza early Saturday, according to the Islamist militant group.

The Israeli military said its warplanes had struck several sites in northern, central and southern Gaza in retaliation for a rocket fired by Gaza militants on Friday that struck the Israeli coastal city of Ashkelon.

Both the rocket attack, which caused some property damage but no injuries, and the Israeli response signify some of the sharpest escalations in tension since the end of Israel’s three-week military offensive against Hamas in Gaza in the winter of 2008-9.

The military wing of Hamas identified the dead commander as Essa al-Batran, 40, from the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza. It said in a statement that Mr. Batran’s wife and five of his children were killed when Israeli war planes fired on his home during the Gaza war.