IAF strike kills three Palestinian militants near Gaza City

Three Palestinians were killed and three were injured Sunday night in an Israel Air Force strike near Gaza City.

One of the dead was identified as a leader of the militant wing of Fatah in the area, and another a member of the Popular Resistance Committees.

The Israel Defense Forces said that all three were terrorists from different militant groups involved in firing Qassam rockets at Israeli towns.

According to the Israel Defense Forces, the air force targeted a jeep in which the three militants were traveling, in the Shati refugee camp next to Gaza City.

Security sources described the strike as a "targeted killing," which is designed to assassinate terror operatives, not thwart an imminent attack. The strike was carried out close to the home of deposed Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.

Yuval Diskin, the head of the Shin Bet security service, said on Sunday that the IDF killed roughly 810 Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in 2006 and 2007. He said 200 were "definitely" militants. A Haaretz examination reveals that half the number of Gazans killed by IDF were not involved in terror.

Earlier, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired eight mortar shells at the western Negev, one of which damaged a house in Nativ Ha'asara.

The remainder of the shells struck open areas, causing no damage or injuries,

Earlier Sunday, the Border Police arrested a Palestinian girl who was trying to enter Hebron's Cave of the Patriarchs with a 30-centimeter-long knife.

Over the weekend, roughly ten mortar shells were fired at Israel from Gaza. They landed in open fields near the Erez Crossing and the Oz River, but caused no injuries or damage. Palestinian militants also fired two Qassam rockets at Israel, one of which landed in an open field, and the other in the northern Gaza Strip.

	Palestinians gather around a destroyed car after it was hit by an IAF airstrike in Gaza City late Sunday. (AP)