Palestinian Factions Vow to Avenge Israel Strike
Militant groups in the Gaza Strip vowed again Sunday to avenge the killing of three of their own, saying Israel would be punished for the strike.
"The occupation's crimes will not go unpunished and it will bear all consequences," said a joint statement from the military wings of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other armed Palestinian factions.
"The stupid leaders of the Zionist entity will regret the moment they thought of committing this foolishness, and time will prove us right," said the statement, read out at a press conference by a masked gunmen.
The warning comes a day after Israeli air force launched a missile at a car traveling in the southern Gaza Strip, killing three members of the Hamas armed wing and wounding a fourth person.
Israel said the strike was designed to foil the kidnapping of Israelis on holiday in the Sinai Peninsula during the coming Jewish festival of Passover.
However, the Gaza militants denied this, saying it was an attempt to "cause a rift between us and the Egyptian leadership".
Both Hamas and Islamic Jihad issued similar threats on Saturday.
The air strike and threats come as relative calm appeared to be retuning to Gaza after a resent escalation in tit-for-tat violence.
Despite the spike in tensions, both Israel and Hamas have shown reluctance to be dragged into another bloody confrontation like their December 2008-January 2009 war, which killed more than 1,400 people, the vast majority of them Palestinians.
Source: Agence France Presse
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