Israeli strikes in Gaza kill three militants after soldier wounded
GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories: Israeli strikes killed three Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after a soldier was wounded by gunfire in a fresh flare-up of violence despite a United Nations-brokered ceasefire deal.
The Israeli army said the strikes targeting Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas were in retaliation for the shots fired at its soldiers along the border earlier Wednesday.
One soldier was moderately wounded and taken to hospital, the army said.
The latest bloodshed comes five days after the UN and Egypt brokered a deal to halt a surge in violence that once again raised the spectre of a new round of conflict between Hamas and Israel.
The three men were killed in strikes east of Gaza City, the health ministry in Gaza said.
In a statement Hamas’s military wing hailed them as its fighters from the Shejaiya area in northern Gaza, saying they were killed during strikes on one of their observation points.
The Israeli army said it carried out artillery strikes against seven military targets belonging to Hamas.
“A short while ago, terrorists fired at (Israeli) soldiers in the southern Gaza Strip,” an army statement said.
“In response ... artillery targeted seven military posts in Gaza belonging to the Hamas terrorist organisation.”
A spokesman for Hamas said in a statement the group would “not abandon its duty to defend and protect our people and to respond to aggression.”
Shortly after the Israeli strikes, sirens sounded near the Israeli city of Ashkelon close to Gaza, the Israeli army said.
There was no immediate confirmation of any rocket fire from Gaza, which typically sets off such sirens, and the military said it appeared to be a “false alarm”.
More sirens were reported later in the evening.
Israeli media reported that Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman had called an emergency meeting of army generals to discuss the situation.
The shooting on the border Wednesday was the second such sniper incident reported by Israel in days. — AFP