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Palestinians in central Gaza inspecting the wreckage of a car belonging to Hamas militants, after it was targeted in an IDF strike on Monday. (Reuters)
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IAF airstrike kills Hamas militant in Gaza Strip
By Yuval Azoulay, Yoav Stern and Mijal Grinberg, Haaretz Correspondents, and The Associated Press

An Israel Air Force strike killed at least one Hamas militant in the Gaza Strip near the border fence with Israel on Wednesday, the Islamist group and local residents said.

An Israeli army spokesman said there had been an air attack on a group of Palestinian militants in the border area. "We fired on them and reported hitting them," he said.

Hamas said its fighters were looking out for Israeli military movements near the fence when they came under attack.

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The Israel Defense Forces killed six Palestinians in three separate incidents
Tuesday, including two children who were targeted as they tried to collect Qassam rocket launchers in the Gaza Strip.

The children, aged nine and 12, were killed in the afternoon by an IDF tank in the northern Gaza Strip. The two were seen moving in a field near Beit Hanun toward rocket launchers immediately after Qassam rockets had been fired on towns in Israel.

The rockets struck the area near Kibbutz Zikim, south of Ashkelon. There were no injuries or damage.

Soon after the launch, an IDF force identified the source of the rocket fire, surveyed the area, and identified a number of suspicious images near the launchers. A tank in the area fired a round, which killed the two children. Another child was seriously injured in the incident.

"Children have no reason to be near Qassam rocket launchers," IDF officers said in a statement Tuesday night.

They said it is possible that Islamic Jihad had hired the children to collect the launchers after the launch. This phenomenon had already been observed in other instances, the IDF officers said.

The tank fired at the figures only after they were seen close to the launchers, IDF sources said.

The only reason anyone approaches the launchers after rockets are fired is to collect them or reload them, the sources said, so there was no way to avoid shooting at the people near the launchers.

"If these were children or youths, we regret the use that the terrorist groups are making of them," a statement from the IDF spokesman read Tuesday.

An IDF source said that troops that had carried out the operation identified the figures next to the launchers as militants. "They were handling the launchers and they obviously hadn't come to slide on them," he said. "Every Palestinian, including the militants, knows that anyone who hangs around these launchers is endangering themselves."

According to IDF analysts, Tuesday's rocket attack against Israel was carried out by the Jerusalem Battalions of the Islamic Jihad.

They said that the militants fled as soon as the rockets were launched.

"This is a cynical use of children but we are no longer surprised by anything we see. A 14-year-old child has already fired an RPG rocket against an IDF force, a grandmother aged close to 70 fired a light weapon against a Givati [Brigade] force recently in the Strip. What were these children doing there anyway? The militants fled immediately after the launch and then sent the children to collect the launchers," one of the sources added.

In another Qassam rocket attack, against the western Negev, one rocket hit a kindergarten in Sderot, causing damage. No injuries were reported because the children are still on summer vacation and the kindergarten was empty. The second Qassam landed in fields.

Palestinian militants have also fired several mortar shells at the western Negev, causing no injuries or damage.

Earlier Tuesday, IDF troops killed three Palestinian militants near the security fence in the southern Gaza Strip, near Khan Yunis.

According to the IDF, the militants were members of Islamic Jihad and were trying to carry out a shooting attack against Israeli targets near the fence. The army said the militants belong to a cell that had carried out such attacks in the past.

The incident began when the vehicle the three were in was spotted and attacked from the air. The three managed to flee, but they were intercepted by an IDF force in the fields.

A fourth militant was injured in the incident.

A spokesman for Islamic Jihad said that the four were on a "jihad-related" activity.

"The blood of our martyrs will be avenged," a statement read.

IDF troops found three sniper rifles in searches of the area following the incident, the army said.

On Monday night, Israel's Channel 2 television reported that six Hamas men killed in an Israeli attack earlier in the day were members of a sniper unit.

The six militants were killed and another was wounded in an IDF rocket strike on a car traveling in the central Gaza Strip.

In an incident in the West Bank city of Nablus Tuesday, IDF troops shot and killed a Palestinian gunman.

The soldiers operating in the Al-Ein refugee camp saw a Palestinian gunman who fired at them before they returned fire and hit him, the army said.

The militant was identified as 38-year-old Nasser Mabrouk, a member of an offshoot of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.
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  1.   CONDEMN OR NOT CONDENM YOUR FRIEND ABBAS 09:36  |  indrajaya 21/08/07
  2.   Good work IDF! 09:53  |  Nechama 21/08/07
  3.   Qudos IDF 09:54  |  Adrian de Klerk 21/08/07
  4.   When playing with fire, these thugs must realize they will be 10:11  |  Anat 21/08/07
  5.   #2, Nechama, #3, Adrien, #4, Anat 10:23  |  Hannah 21/08/07
  6.   Kill them (the Islamofascists) as much as you can 10:55  |  maurice 21/08/07
  7.   Hannah: News flash! 11:10  |  Nechama 21/08/07
  8.   indrajaya 11:14  |  Nechama 21/08/07
  9.   I AGREE WITH MYSELF 11:23  |  indrajaya 21/08/07
  10.   Maurice #6, PFLP are not "islamofashists"! 11:35  |  Scientist 21/08/07
  11.   # 8, NECHAMA 11:46  |  indrajaya 21/08/07
  12.   IDF SHOW NO MERCY THEY DONT!! 11:53  |  Lavy 21/08/07
  13.   to#10 Scientist, thanks for your info, but... 12:00  |  maurice 21/08/07
  14.   burning in hell with 4397 more terrorists. 12:37  |  Nasser Mabrouk 21/08/07
  15.   Right, Hannah from Canada, I am "less than animal" as you refer 12:39  |  Anat 21/08/07
  16.   Death of PA militant 13:37  |  Chaim Gorenstein 21/08/07
  17.   #13 Maurice: Marxists and Islamofashists 14:22  |  Scientist 21/08/07
  18.   QASSEMS have consequences.Ethnic cleansing the Negev of Jews 14:34  |  PETER SM 21/08/07
  19.   Missing word is out 14:34  |  Shlomo 21/08/07
  20.   " HANNAH"animals protect their young,not send them in harms way 14:49  |  PETER SM 21/08/07
  21.   #16, Chaim Gorenstein 15:04  |  Burkhardt 21/08/07
  22.   IDF troops found three sniper rifles 15:23  |  Mary 21/08/07
  23.   Indrajaya 15:24  |  Nechama 21/08/07
  24.   to#22 Mary, the most important thing is.... 15:31  |  maurice 21/08/07
  25.   indrajaya: P.S.: another thought... 15:34  |  Nechama 21/08/07
  26.   its never game over 15:45  |  Gaza residnets 21/08/07
  27.   EMPTY KINDEGARTEN HIT, THIS IS THE 15:46  |  Robert 21/08/07
  28.   Indrajaya takes the bait 15:53  |  Honest Observation 21/08/07
  29.   3 Sniper Terrorists Killed, Hareetz needs to change 15:57  |  EYESWIDEOPEN 21/08/07
  30.   to # 26 Gaza resident 15:59  |  Lavy 21/08/07
  31.   #5 Hannah 16:00  |  Steven 21/08/07
  32.   OUCH 16:00  |  NAIROBI LAD 21/08/07
  33.   #22 Mary-Remember the "massacre" of Jenin 16:01  |  Murray of Montreal 21/08/07
  34.   #22 Mary 16:05  |  Steven 21/08/07
  35.   They target kindergarten, soon they will meet the virgins 16:09  |  maurice 21/08/07
  36.   Gaza resident # 26 16:30  |  ChanahS 21/08/07
  37.   Good Hunting IDF! Keep it up! 16:39  |  Nero 21/08/07
  38.   is this the price for Pal. nationalism? if so.... 16:40  |  Richard S 21/08/07
  39.   Time for Olmert to go 16:54  |  Ron 21/08/07
  40.   Burkhardt 17:09  |  Chaim Gorenstein 21/08/07
  41.   Qassam hit a kindergarten in S`derot!!! 17:21  |  David Hacohen 21/08/07
  42.   # 34 Steven 17:46  |  Mary 21/08/07
  43.   Well Done Again, Keep It Up 17:58  |  Solon 21/08/07
  44.   Mary`s comparisons 18:08  |  ChanahS 21/08/07
  45.   Militants You Say? 18:31  |  Ricardo 21/08/07
  46.   New elections are needed now 18:33  |  Shepherd 21/08/07
  47.   BRAVO IDF 18:41  |  alan 21/08/07
  48.   IDF troops kill three Palestinian gunmen 18:59  |  BRAVEMAN 21/08/07
  49.   Hanah - May god judge you fairly 19:30  |  Avram 21/08/07
  50.   Bravo, IDF 19:32  |  KUTW 21/08/07
  51.   Yet more congratulatory posts here to the IDF... 19:39  |  Silvienne 21/08/07
  52.   13. maurice to#10 Scientist: Reds and Islamofascists 19:39  |  KUTW 21/08/07
  53.   It`s the combination, really 19:40  |  Colin Wright 21/08/07
  54.   Israel : Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin 19:42  |  Clickfool 21/08/07
  55.   To Scientist (shalom) 19:44  |  Avram 21/08/07
  56.   # 44 ChanahS 19:45  |  Mary 21/08/07
  57.   22. Mary: Why dont you go there 19:46  |  KUTW 21/08/07
  58.   Colin Wright 19:47  |  Silvienne 21/08/07
  59.   Hard To Tell Who Are The Terrorists, The IDF or the Militants 19:50  |  Mr. Knowitall 21/08/07
  60.   51- Silvienne moarning again 19:52  |  Visitor 21/08/07
  61.   53. Colin Wright: the combination 19:57  |  KUTW 21/08/07
  62.   CONGRATULATIONS, BRAVO, ETC. TO Israel Defense Forces 20:00  |  Theodor 21/08/07
  63.   For "Nero" and his "Good Hunting, IDF" # 37 20:01  |  Clickfool 21/08/07
  64.   Not A Word Of Sympathy About The Kids 20:02  |  chet 21/08/07
  65.   Silvienne, Colin Wright-Send in the Clowns 20:09  |  Honest Observation 21/08/07
  66.   Colin Wright and Clickfool 20:21  |  Alain 21/08/07
  67.   Advice for Honest Observation # 65 20:23  |  Clickfool 21/08/07
  68.   who are the terrorists? 20:23  |  Ramat 21/08/07
  69.   not a word about the child abuse from chet 20:26  |  peter 21/08/07
  70.   To Mr. Knowitall # 59 20:30  |  Peter 21/08/07
  71.   After Lebanon 2 the IDF is back