Region | Palestinian Territories
Palestinians firing rockets killed by Israeli airstrike
Hamas vows to avenge death of fighters from allied group.
- AP
- Published: 11:42 November 16, 2008
- Palestinians carry the body of a fighter after he was killed by an Israeli airstrike in Gaza.
- Image Credit: Reuters
Gaza City: An Israeli airstrike killed four Palestinian fighters as they were firing mortars at Israel from the Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian officials said, just hours after another group of fighters struck Israel in a separate rocket attack.
The violence was the latest in a surge of spiralling clashes that have rocked a five-month-old truce between Israel and Gaza's Hamas rulers.
Both sides say they would like to preserve the truce, which is due to expire next month, but events over the past two weeks signal the opposite is happening.
The fighters killed in the airstrike were from a small Hamas-allied group known as the Popular Resistance Committees. Abu Attaya, a spokesman for the group, said the four were firing mortars when they were killed.
The Israeli military said the airstrike targeted a rocket squad in northern Gaza.
After the strike, dozens of onlookers converged on the bodies shouting "God is great". They then carried the bodies, one wrapped in a blanket, to a nearby civilian car.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum threatened retaliation. "Today's crime will not pass without punishment," he said. Palestinians launched two rockets earlier in the day into Israel, hitting near a community on the Israel-Gaza border.
No one was hurt, the military said.
According to the Israeli military's count, Palestinians have sent more than 170 rockets and mortars flying at Israel since the violence resumed nearly two weeks ago.
Israeli troops have killed 15 fighters, and two more died in unclear circumstances. No civilians have been killed on either side.
Israeli leaders signalled they had not given up on the cease-fire. Speaking on Sunday ahead of the Israeli Cabinet's weekly meeting, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he had told the military to present plans for "various operations against Hamas".
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