Israel killed two Gaza gunmen in an air strike on Wednesday, blaming one of them for firing rockets across the border during former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s funeral last week.
Palestinian residents said the dead men belonged to Islamic Jihad, an armed faction that has sometimes defied efforts by the Gaza Strip’s Hamas government to keep truces with Israel.
Islamic Jihad claimed one man, Ahmed Al-Za’anin, as its own, without immediately commenting on the other’s affiliation.
But Israel’s military, confirming the air strike in Beit Hanoun, said Za’anin was a former Islamic Jihad member who had joined the more secular Popular Front for Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PFLP did not immediately respond.
Za’anin had carried out numerous attacks, the military said, including the launch of rockets into southern Israel as Sharon was being buried there last week in a ceremony attended by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and other foreign dignitaries.
There were no casualties in that salvo.
Za’anin and the second gunman, his relative, were sitting in a parked car when it was hit by the missile, locals said.
