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Paramedics evacuating a Sderot resident after he was seriously wounded in a Qassam strike on Saturday. (David Buimovich / Jini)
Last update - 08:14 11/02/2008
IAF fires missile at two armed Palestinians in north Gaza
By Mijal Grinberg, Yuval Azoulay and Amos Harel, Haaretz Correspondents and Reuters
Tags: Gaza, Hamas, Sderot, Israel

The Israel Air Force fired a missile aimed at two armed Palestinians in the northern Gaza town of Jabalya late Sunday night.

An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson confirmed that the IAF scored a direct hit on the target, but there was no word of injuries.

In an exchange of gunfire at the Gaza Strip border on Sunday evening, IDF troops killed a Palestinian militant after he opened fire on them.
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At nightfall, about 20 IDF vehicles rolled into northern Gaza, where most of the rockets are fired, witnesses said. The IDF called the operation routine.

By nightfall Sunday, the IDF said Palestinians fired one rocket and five mortar shells at Israel, after firing dozens the days before.

Earlier Sunday, the IAF killed a Hamas militant in Gaza, hours after two brothers, aged 8 and 19, were seriously wounded when a Qassam rocket struck the backyard of a house in the southern town of Sderot.

The IAF carried out four strikes in the Gaza Strip before dawn on Sunday, wounding three militants and killing Mohammed Matir, a commander in Hamas' military wing.

The IAF targeted, among other sites, an arms storage facility in a refugee camp in Rafah. Defense officials said that the Israel Defense Forces were planning to step up its Gaza operations as well as targeted killings of specific militants in response to the ongoing Qassam rocket fire.

An IDF spokeswoman said the target of the air strike was a Hamas militant who had been involved in smuggling. She added a second strike targeted a Hamas post near the Gaza town of Khan Younis.

The two brothers hurt in Saturday's rocket barrage, Osher and Rami Twito, were taken to the Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon, where doctors were forced to amputate the leg of the younger brother. The older brother, Rami, was in recovery and conscious. Their mother Iris was treated for shock, and moved between the hospital rooms of her two sons.

Defense officials threatened retaliation for the Qassam attack, for which the Palestinian group Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility, but said that for now Israel would not employ "new methods."

"Israel will take resolute and decisive measures to protect our citizens," government spokesman David Baker said Saturday. "We will not allow Israeli families to be victimized by Palestinian rockets in the heart of their own cities."

Sources close to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he told Austrian Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik, who visited Israel last week, that he is "under pressure" to launch a massive ground operation in Gaza.

Defense officials told Haaretz they thought the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip were stepping up their efforts to fire Qassams into Israel in retaliation for the IDF strikes last week that killed seven Hamas men.

The rocket that wounded the brothers was one of three that hit the
rocket-weary city Saturday evening. Three other rockets were fired into
southern Israel earlier in the day, causing no casualties or damage.

Islamic Jihad's armed wing, the Al-Quds Brigade, claimed responsibility for Saturday evening's Qassam attack. Hamas said that since last Tuesday, its own militants have fired 154 rockets and mortar shells at Israel.

Earlier Saturday, two IAF strikes targeted several Qassam rocket-launching squads in Beit Hanun in the northern Gaza Strip, following a barrage of 30 rockets Friday that pounded southern Israeli communities.

The rocket that wounded the two brothers was also launched from Beit Hanun, defense officials in Jerusalem said.

The second IAF strike in Beit Hanun Saturday seriously wounded one militant, believed to belong to the Popular Resistance Committees, a small militant group with ties to Hamas.

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      2.   Olmert Must Go 02:03  |  Ron 10/02/08
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      4.   Best protection for israeli citizens is to get out Palestinian 02:16  |  lakshmi 10/02/08
      5.   Any one in their right mind... 02:21  |  Mike 10/02/08
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      8.   When is the time for a revolution? 02:44  |  Shlomo 10/02/08
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      16.   Zuckerman 03:51  |  Paul 10/02/08
      17.   hamas 03:55  |  tom 10/02/08
      18.   What is olmert waiting for? 05:39  |  MP 10/02/08
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      23.   Zuckerman 07:14  |  Calyxcrater 10/02/08
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      39.   Shlomo (Post No. 35) 12:34  |  Johnny Weintraub 10/02/08
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