Israeli jets strike car, killing 2 Palestinians in Gaza
Direct hit a targeted assassination of terror operatives in Shati refugee camp; incident occurred next to home of Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh
Israeli jets struck a car in the Gaza Strip on Friday, killing two Palestinian terrorists in a targeted assassination in the Shati refugee camp.
Palestinian medical sources said the raids struck near the home of Ismail Haniyeh, former Hamas prime minister who stepped down June 2 when Hamas and the Palestinian Authority set up a unity government.
The Israel Air Force confirmed a direct hit on the car. The IDF said the two terror operatives were involved in a cell responsible for the repeated rocket fire on Israel’s southern cities over the past several weeks and were planning several terror attacks on Israeli civilians.
“An IAF aircraft targeted Osama Hassumi and Mohammad Fatzih, terror operatives in the northern Gaza Strip,” the IDF said in a statement Friday.
“Militants, like Hassumi and Fatzih, attacking Israel from Gaza, are not safe, do not have immunity, and will not be free to plan, plot and operate. We will continue to strike the instigators and agitators with patience, determination and precision. Gaza rocket terrorism does not pay,” said IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner Friday.
“The two martyrs killed in a Zionist raid on a car arrived at al-Shifa hospital,” confirmed a spokesperson of the Palestinian emergency services to AFP on Friday.
The incident came a day after Israel named two Hamas men as prime suspects in the kidnapping of three Israeli teenagers in the West Bank on June 12.
The two alleged abductors, Amer Abu Aysha and Marwan Kawasme, are both known Hamas members. They have been missing from their homes in Hebron’s Hares neighborhood ever since the kidnapping took place and are still at large. Israeli security forces have been engaged in a massive operation to find the abducted youths.
Earlier Friday, an explosive device was activated against IDF troops operating along the security fence in the southern Gaza Strip. No injuries were reported in the incident.
Israeli forces responded with tank fire at suspected lookout posts near Khan Younis on the Palestinian side of the Gaza border, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit reported.
Palestinian media reported six injured by the IDF retaliatory fire, including one in critical condition. A pregnant woman and an 11-year-old boy were said to be among the wounded, and two mosques were damaged, according to Ma’an.
Also Friday, three Palestinians were injured in riots against Israel Defense Forces troops in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus, the Ma’an news agency reported.
On Sunday, a lone terrorist from the Gaza Strip, armed with a grenade, managed to cross the border into Israel unchallenged.
The inquiry into the incident ended on Thursday with two officers being dismissed from their posts and several other soldiers being disciplined.
The incident occurred in the Eshkol Region, adjacent to the southern Gaza Strip. After scaling the fence in the middle of the night, a Palestinian man, armed with a hand grenade, walked five kilometers through Israeli territory before finally being safely apprehended by a civilian security officer near Moshav Yated.
IDF officials believe the man acted alone and was not sent by a terrorist organization.
Stuart Winer and AFP contributed to this report.
