NORTH SINAI, Jul 4 (Aswat Masriya) - Three civilians were killed and two were seriously injured when a rocket hit a house near North Sinai's Sheikh Zuweid city on Saturday, sources and eyewitnesses said. 

Medical sources said ambulances have transported all five casualties, adding that they include children. 

Eyewitnesses told Aswat Masriya that the five belonged to one family.

This incident comes at a turbulent time for the peninsula, with the Sinai-based Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis militant group intensifying attacks. 

On Wednesday, Ansar conducted a string of attacks on a number of security checkpoints and a police station in the Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid, in a failed attempt to take over the town. 

The attacks claimed the lives of 17 army personnel and injured 13, according to military figures. The military said it killed no less than 100 suspected militants on that day. 

More recently, on Friday the group claimed responsibility for for three rockets it said it fired into Israel, earlier that day. 

The group changed its name to Sinai Province last November after pledging allegiance to Islamic State fighters in Iraq and Syria.