Hamas: Gaza bombmaker killed in work-related blast

Hamas said overnight Monday that a Hamas militant was killed and three others injured in an explosion in a northern Gaza Strip bomb workshop, Army Radio reported.

Hamas initially claimed that the casualties were the result of an Israel Defense Forces attack.

Late Monday night, Palestinian sources claimed that three Hamas men had been killed by another IAF missile strike in the northern Gaza Strip. The army denied the report.

Relative quiet prevailed along the Israel-Gaza border Monday, following Sunday's killing of three Palestinians by an air force strike as they were about to launch rockets at Israel. One Qassam rocket landed in the western Negev, but caused no damage or casualties.

Also Sunday, four mortar shells were fired from the Gaza Strip, but all landed on the Palestinian side of the border.

The three men killed on Sunday were former members of Islamic Jihad who had broken away to join another, smaller, even more extremist faction. That may explain the muted reaction to their deaths in Gaza.

In addition, Hamas is apparently making an effort to prevent further escalation.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Monday that the recent escalation in rocket and mortar fire from Gaza "stems from Hamas' failure to impose its will on rejectionist groups - the popular committees and jihadi organizations. The lull achieved by Cast Lead is still in force, but I advise Hamas in Gaza to weigh its steps in advance rather than drowning in crocodile tears afterward should they force us to act."

Cast Lead is the code name given to last year's war in Gaza.

Barak, who was speaking at a ceremony to celebrate last week's successful test of the Iron Dome system for defense against short-range rockets, lauded the system's developers and his predecessor as defense minister, MK Amir Peretz (Labor), for carrying out the project so quickly.