Israeli forces launch new Gaza attack

In its first attack inside the Gaza Strip in nearly two months, Israeli forces wounded three Islamic Jihad gunmen who were preparing to launch rockets into Israel from northern Gaza today, witnesses and the army said.

In its first attack inside the Gaza Strip in nearly two months, Israeli forces wounded three Islamic Jihad gunmen who were preparing to launch rockets into Israel from northern Gaza today, the army said.

The Israeli army said its ground forces fired on three gunmen preparing to fire rockets.

Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for firing eight rockets at Israeli towns today. No casualties were reported in those attacks.

Two of the men were evacuated by donkey cart and then taken by car to the hospital, where they were listed in serious condition. The fate of the third man was not immediately known.

Israel has observed a truce with Palestinian factions in Gaza since November, but the radical Islamic Jihad is not party to the ceasefire and continues to fire rockets at Israel.

Israel routinely shoots at Palestinians who approach the border fence with Israel, but has not attacked deeper inside Gaza since an Israeli airstrike on January 30 against a tunnel dug by militants near the Karni cargo crossing.

Meanwhile, internal Palestinian violence erupted today in the centre of the chaotic coastal strip when unidentified gunmen shot at a Hamas militant leader and his family during a car chase through Gaza City, injuring five people, Hamas and hospital officials said.

Gunmen in a sports utility vehicle chased a car carrying Abu Salah Shinbari, a Hamas leader from the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, along with his wife and two young children, witnesses said. The gunmen jammed Shinbari’s sedan against a parked car and then riddled it with at least 10 bullets, they said.

Shinbari’s wife was seriously injured, his children were moderately injured and he was lightly injured, hospital officials said. A bystander was also hurt.

Hamas accused Fatah militants of carrying out the attack. In a text message to The Associated Press, Hamas said the “dirty attack … will not go unpunished".

After describing the assailants’ truck on local radio stations, members of the Hamas militia chased the gunmen’s vehicle and clashed with the passengers in northern Gaza. Three gunmen were injured, hospital officials said.

Militants from Hamas and Fatah have repeatedly battled in the streets of Gaza since Hamas won parliamentary elections last year. About 140 people have been killed in the fighting, which ended in recent weeks after the two sides agreed to form a unity government.

Shinbari played an active role during the clashes with Fatah.