Palestinian raiders kill three Israeli soldiers

THREE Israeli soldiers and three Palestinians were killed during gun battles after militants broke into a Jewish settlement in the Gaza Strip.

The soldiers were shot dead by members of three radical Palestinian movements in the southern Gaza settlement of Morag.

“The gunmen infiltrated under the cover of the community’s greenhouses and opened fire at the soldiers, killing an IDF (Israel Defence Forces) officer and another two IDF soldiers,” an army statement said.

“IDF soldiers opened fire at the gunmen and killed them. Two AK-47 assault rifles, nine magazines and four grenades were found on the bodies of the two gunmen.”

However, as the region’s commander, General Shmuel Zacai, tried to hold a press conference later, it became clear a third Palestinian was at large.

Reporters took cover as the Palestinian exchanged fire with the soldiers, live on Israeli radio.

One reporter was shot in the leg and had his wounds dressed by the commander.

The gun battle lasted about half-an-hour before the Palestinian was killed.

The attack was claimed in the name of three small militant groups - the Popular Resistance Committees, Aburish and Islamic Jihad.

Palestinian sources later named the three dead men as 22-year-old Mohammed El Azazi and Imad Abu Samhadana, 21, both from Rafah and Yussef Amr, 19, from Gaza City.

Around 15 Palestinians were wounded in Khan Yunis in overnight Israeli operations, including a helicopter strike.

Meanwhile, funerals were held for two Israeli policemen who died on Wednesday in a suicide attack by a Palestinian woman bomber.

Eighteen-year-old Zainab Ali Abu Salem, from a refugee camp in Nablus, injured 17 other people when she blew herself up at a checkpoint.