Updated on
Summary At least three Palestinians were killed in incidents of violence in Gaza.
Israeli air strikes killed two Gaza militants Monday as they clashed with troops who crossed the border on the eve of a landmark visit by the Qatari emir, medics said, and a third man died later in disputed circumstances.The flare up provoked threats of revenge from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the ruling Hamas movement, and a pledge from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that there would be no immunity for those firing on the Jewish state.Two air strikes took place around the northern town of Beit Hanun where militants were firing mortar rounds at an Israeli tank and several military vehicles which had crossed the border into Gaza territory, witnesses and security sources said.The first strike hit north of Beit Hanun, critically wounding four Qassam Brigades militants, one of whom later died, medics and the militant group said.As the clashes continued, Israel launched a second air strike east of Beit Hanun, killing a militant from the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and critically wounding another man, the same sources said.The Qassam Brigades confirmed that the first strike had killed one of its militants and critically wounded another three, naming the dead man as Abderahman Abu Jalaleh, 25, and describing him as a local commander.The second strike killed a PRC militant whom the group named as Yasser al-Tarabin. The identity of the wounded man was not immediately clear.The Israeli military said both strikes had targeted a rocket launching squad.The squad was targeted in response to mortar shell fire at a routine IDF (army) patrol in the area, near the Israeli kibbutz of Nir Am, a statement said of the first strike. An identical statement was issued following the second.Israeli police said that ahead of the strikes, militants fired a wave of rockets into southern Israel.Four rockets landed in the early hours of the morning, spokesman Micky Rosenfeld told AFP. They were fired from the Gaza Strip and landed in open areas, not causing any damage or injuries.During the late afternoon Palestinian medical services and witnesses said a third air strike at Beit Hanun left a man critically wounded, and later said that the man, Khalil al-Kafarna, 21, had died of his injuries.It was not immediately known if he was a militant.An Israeli military spokeswoman denied that aircraft had struck again.
