GAZA – Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip killed two militants from the Islamist group Hamas and three Palestinian civilians on Friday in a second day of increased cross-border violence. The Israeli military said it “identified two terrorist squads from Hamas” and hit the militants from the ground and air.
An elderly Palestinian and two women died when their house in Khan Younis was hit and three other women were wounded, hospital sources said. An Israel Defence Forces (IDF) statement said “uninvolved civilians have apparently been injured” in one strike. “The IDF regrets that the Hamas terrorist organisation chooses to operate from within its civilian population, using it as a ‘human shield’,” the statement said.
At least 15 rockets have been fired into Israel since dawn, causing damage but no injuries, said a police spokesman. Police were restricting traffic near the border area and there appeared to be no early end in sight to operations. “We are in the middle of an event,” General Tal Russo, head of Israel forces Southern Command, told reporters. “We are considering all actions, and we are in the midst of it.”
Hamas had been hit hard, he said, but it was not over yet. “We are considering everything. We are looking short-term, long-term. There are many tools in the box.” Two years of low-level skirmishing on the border escalated suddenly last month when the Hamas group which rules Gaza fired a barrage of rockets at Israel, triggering a surge of fighting which killed 16 Palestinians.
Analysts in Gaza said Hamas wanted to bolster its claim to leadership of the divided Palestinian national movement and divert attention from popular demands — fuelled by the “Arab Spring” — for an end to the split with its Fatah rivals. That spurt of violence subsided, but fighting flared again on Thursday when Hamas gunmen fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli school bus, wounding two.
Israel retaliated with planes and armoured forces, killing five Palestinians.
