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Two Gazans killed in Israel air strikes

The flare-up provoked threats of revenge from the Ezzedine Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the ruling Hamas movement, and a pledge from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that there would be no immunity for those firing on the Jewish state.

Both strikes took place around the northern town of Beit Hanun where militants were firing mortar shells at an Israeli tank and several military vehicles which had crossed the border into Gaza territory, witnesses and security sources said.

The first strike hit north of Beit Hanun, critically wounding four Qassam Brigades militants, one of whom later died of his injuries, medics and the militant group said. As the clashes continued, Israel launched a second air strike east of Beit Hanun, killing a militant from the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and critically wounding another man, the same sources said.

The Qassam Brigades confirmed that the first strike had killed one of its militants and critically wounded another three, naming the dead man as Abderahman Abu Jalaleh, 25, and describing him as a local commander.

The second strike killed a PRC militant whom the group named as Yasser Al Tarabin. The identity of the injured man was not immediately clear.

The Israeli military said the both strikes had targeted “a rocket launching squad”.

“The squad was targeted in response to mortar shell fire at a routine IDF (army) patrol in the area, near the Israeli kibbutz of Nir Am,” a statement said of the first strike. An identical statement was issued following the second.