JERUSALEM — Gaza militants continued to bombard southern Israel with rockets on Wednesday and Israeli forces struck back against targets in the Palestinian coastal enclave in a clash set off by Israel’s assassination of a senior Islamic Jihad commander on Tuesday.

Though the death toll rose in Gaza and much of southern Israel was paralyzed by air-raid warnings, both sides appeared to be carefully measuring their actions.

After a quiet night and a resumption of hostilities early Wednesday, Israel and Gaza teetered between a quick resolution to this round of violence and a possible escalation — either intentional or through a misstep — that could lead to a much broader conflict.

In a speech on Wednesday night, Ziad al-Nakhala, the secretary-general of Islamic Jihad, said that Israel was seeking a cease-fire and he laid out his group’s conditions for one, including an end to Israel’s targeted killings and a commitment to previous understandings on easing the blockade on Gaza.