JERUSALEM, Israel -- Increasing numbers of Palestinian Arab jihadists from the Gaza Strip are joining Syrian opposition fighters.

Quoting the Arab language daily al-Quds, Jerusalem Post Palestinian Affairs correspondent Khaled Abu Toameh said there's been a dramatic increase from the first year of the conflict when a few Gazans entered Syria via Turkey to fight with anti-government militias.

Most of the fighters, members of Salafi and jihadi groups in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, left to join Jabhat al-Nusra, established a year ago and already designated a terror group by the United States.

Toameh quoted Abu al-Ayna al-Ansari, head of a Salafi group in Gaza, saying some of the fighters now in Syria had run-ins with Hamas, citing the late Nidal al-Eshi, 23, killed in Aleppo.

Eshi was sentenced in absentia to a seven-year prison term for attacking an International Red Cross vehicle in Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza.

Former Hamas commander Mohamed Kunaita, 32, was also killed fighting in Syria.

Meanwhile, opposition forces reported at least 50 killed by a volley of Scud missiles fired at Aleppo, dozens injured, and the neighborhood of Jabal Badro decimated.