Israeli strikes in Gaza kill seven Palestinians
GAZA CITY (AFP) — Israeli forces in the northern Gaza Strip killed seven Palestinians overnight, including three militants from the Hamas movement that has ruled the Gaza Strip since June, medics said on Wednesday.
In the largest operation, a helicopter strike near Gaza City killed six militants and wounded another 11 people, Palestinian medics said.
Three of them were from the armed wing of Hamas, two from the Popular Resistance Committees and the sixth was a member of the armed wing of the radical Islamic Jihad movement.
An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed there was an operation in Gaza during which Israeli troops opened fire after coming under attack from small arms and anti-tank rockets before calling in an aircraft.
On Wednesday night medics recovered the body of an unidentified man shot by Israel on Tuesday night near the northern border fence.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said the man was suspected of trying to enter Israel or place explosives near the fence.
Separately, a member of the Popular Resistance Committees was wounded when his vehicle was targeted by an Israeli air strike in Gaza City on Wednesday night, hospital sources and witnesses reported.
Two passersby were also wounded in the attack, which an Israeli army spokesman confirmed.
The wounded militant was Abu Shaban, group spokesman Abu Mujahid said.
Earlier, witnesses had said the vehicle was carrying Islamic Jihad members and that they had escaped unscathed.
The latest deaths bring to 6,021 the number of people killed since the start of the second Palestinian uprising in September 2000, the vast majority of them Palestinians, according to an AFP tally.
Israel has carried out near-daily military strikes and incursions across Gaza since the Islamist Hamas movement seized power there in June 2007 after routing security forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
