Last update - 00:00 24/02/2008
Five Palestinians killed in IDF Gaza actions over the weekend
By Yuval Azoulay and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents
Israel Defense Forces ground troops targeted a group of Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip overnight Saturday. The IDF said the target was hit, but it was not clear how many militants had been hurt and what their condition was.
Meanwhile, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired three Qassam rockets into the western Negev Sunday morning. The rockets struck open fields and caused to damage or injuries.
IDF actions in Gaza left five Palestinians dead over the weekend.
Three Palestinians were killed Saturday afternoon in an Israel Air Force air strike in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said.
Family members of the three men killed, identified them as an employee of a Jordanian bank, a former government employee, and a student. They said the three had been on a picnic.
The IDF confirmed the air strike, but said the three had belonged to a militant cell, and that they had approached the Gaza border in order to fire a mortar shell into Israel when they were killed.
The air strike came a day after an Israeli missile killed two Palestinian militants and wounded a third in central Gaza, according to Palestinian medical staff and Hamas security officials.
The Hamas officials, who did not wish to be named, said the militants were members of the Islamic Jihad group who were on foot east of the Maghazi refugee camp when they were targeted.
The militants had been posted in central Gaza near the Israeli border to observe army movements, Islamic Jihad said.
An IDF spokeswoman confirmed an air strike had been carried out against "terror elements" in the Gaza Strip.
Israel frequently carries out missile strikes and raids against militants in the Gaza Strip in what it says is an effort to stop them launching rockets into southern Israeli towns and planting bombs along the border that target IDF soldiers.
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