GAZA: Fresh Israeli strike on Gaza brings Palestinian death toll to six, wounds four

A fresh Israeli strike on southern Gaza Strip kills one gunmen of the Islamic Jihad militant group and wounds four, raising death toll to six Palestinians killed during an army raid into the coastal strip. Israeli forces killed six Palestinians on Tuesday (August 14) when they clashed with militants during a raid on the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, Palestinian militant and hospital sources said. Militant group Islamic Jihad said one of its members was killed and at least four were wounded by a missile strike during a raid. An Israeli army spokesman said the operation was aimed at finding a suspected militant tunnel network at the Gazan frontier and to prevent cross-border rocket fire. The army said it rounded up some 100 Palestinians for interrogation and "took several dozens of them to Israel for further interrogation" . Soldiers discovered a bomb and an explosive belt during the raid, the army said. Two Hamas militants and a 40-year-old bystander were killed during the raid on the southern villages of Qarara and Abassan, hospital officials said. Hamas said another of its gunmen and his mother were shot and killed as they emerged from their home in the area. At least 16 Palestinians were wounded in the fighting in which the Israeli troops were backed by military aircraft. During the clash in the mostly residential area, Hamas said its militants fired assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades at the Israeli force. Witnesses said tanks responded with machine-gun fire and Israeli snipers shot at the militants from rooftops. Israeli aircraft fired two missiles that wounded seven gunmen, they said. Hamas's armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, vowed in a statement to continue the fight against Israel "until either victory or martyrdom". Israel has tried to isolate Hamas in the Gaza Strip, which the group seized by force in June in fighting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's secular Fatah faction.

ITN Source | August 15, 2007

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