Palestinians killed in Israeli raid

28/12/2007| IslamWeb

At least four Palestinians have been killed and 10 others wounded in Gaza Strip during the latest Israeli army incursion in the Hamas-run territory.

An official for the Islamic Jihad group said two Israeli missiles hit a car on Thursday, killing one gunman and wounding two other passengers. Three bystanders were also wounded.

An Israeli army spokesman said the air strike in central Gaza targeted a vehicle carrying explosives and militants travelling to "execute a terror attack".

Earlier on Thursday, Israeli troops killed three people and wounded five others near the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis.

Local residents said the intended target was a group of fighters belonging to Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.

The Israeli army said that infantry units backed by air power carried out a "routine operation" targeting gunmen who were firing rockets and mortars into Israel.

"Units that entered several kilometers into the Gaza Strip were fired at by an anti-tank shell. They responded and hit three armed men," said a spokesman.

In the northern part of the West Bank, the army announced it had arrested Mohammed Abdel Rahman, a wanted member of Islamic Jihad.

Hamas said two of the dead were Hamas members, while the third was identified as belonging to Islamic Jihad.

Israel has this month stepped up ground and air operations against Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.

On December 20, Israeli tanks and troops raided the central Gaza Strip, killing at least six Palestinian fighters.

Thursday's deaths bring to 6,001 the number of people killed since the start of the second Palestinian uprising in September 2000, the vast majority of them Palestinians, according to an AFP tally.

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Gaza funeral