Six Palestinians Killed in Israeli Air Raid on Gaza
An Israeli air strike on the southern Gaza town of Rafah killed six people on Thursday, Palestinian medics said, just hours after a string of deadly attacks in southern Israel.
Israeli military sources confirmed that air strikes were carried out in Gaza shortly after three attacks in southern Israel killed at least seven people.
The head of the Hamas-run emergency services in the Gaza Strip, Adham Abu Selmiya, said in a statement that "six martyrs" were killed in "a Zionist raid on a house in Rafah."
An Agence France Presse photographer and witnesses said Kamal al-Nayrab, secretary-general of the Gaza-based militant group the Popular Resistance Committees, was among those killed.
Speaking to reporters shortly after the strikes, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak confirmed that the group had been targeted by the military action.
"The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will continue to act with all its power and even now the IDF's strikes are raining down on the Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza as we speak," he said.
The raids came as Israeli military forces battled to regain control in southern Israel after at least three attacks that killed seven people.
Security sources said Israeli troops had killed seven suspected Palestinian attackers as they engaged in running gun battles in the area near the Egyptian border.
The Israeli army confirmed that the first incident occurred around noon, when gunmen opened fire on a bus driving near the Egyptian border.
Shortly afterwards, a vehicle carrying Israeli troops to the scene of the attack drove over an improvised explosive device.
The military described additional shooting attacks against a second bus and a civilian vehicle, and Israeli security sources said a rocket-propelled grenade had been fired at a car in an incident near the Jordanian border.
Seven hours after the first attack, and after the Israeli military said the situation was under control, Israeli media reported new incidents of gunfire close to the place where the first shooting attack occurred.
Source: Agence France Presse
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