Palestinians in cross-border raid
Israel shells Gaza after Palestinian fighters’ deadly attack at crossing point.
The Popular Resistance Committees, a part of the Islamic Jihad movement, was one of several groups that claimed responsibility for the attack.
Attempted abduction
Al Jazeera’s Jacky Rowland, also reporting from Jerusalem, said that Israeli authorities believe that the fighters tried to abduct Israeli soldiers in the area.
“This was a very audacious attack, and a serious breach of security,” she said.
“Israeli security officials do not want a repeat of the abduction of Gilad Shalit [Israeli soldier captured last year].”
Rowland also said that there are reports of a state of emergency being declared along the Gaza border.
Shortly after the battle, an Israeli military aircraft hit a vehicle carrying Islamic Jihad fighters, in Gaza City, injuring three people, one of them seriously, according to Palestinian medics.
Hamas blamed
Israel has said that it will hold the Hamas movement, which took full control of the Gaza Strip last year, accountable for the attack at the Nahal crossing.
“Hamas clearly controls the Gaza Strip. They are directly responsible for this attack and we will hold them accountable,” Mark Regev, spokesman for Ehud Olmert, the prime minister, said.
Israel has blamed Hamas for the crossing breach [Reuters] |
Meanwhile, a member of Hamas’s Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades and an Israeli soldier were killed in fighting during an Israeli incursion in the Gaza Strip, the army and Palestinian medics said.
“An Israeli unit entered the southern Gaza Strip on the edge of the security barrier and engaged armed men.”
The spokeswoman said that 10 Palestinians were arrested in the raid and taken to Israel.
Israeli raids
The military said it launched the raid on Wednesday morning near Khan Younis in response to shootings and other anti-Israel activity in the area of the border fence.