Three Palestinian militants killed in Gaza

April 22, 2008  
Agence France Press
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5h4hL6n_AbzobVWq5phhzUJX2QPwA
GAZA CITY (AFP) — Israeli troops killed three Palestinian militants in overnight clashes in the northern Gaza Strip Tuesday after fighters attacked a military position near the border, the armed groups said.
The armed wing of Islamic Jihad and another smaller group claimed to have attacked an Israeli intelligence post in a joint statement identifying the dead as Othman Abu Hajar, 19, Fadi Salem, 20, and Ibrahim Mahmud Shalash, 19.
Palestinian medics confirmed that three people were killed in the area but said they had not yet received permission to retrieve the bodies.
An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed the incident, saying that the three tried to launch an attack near the border before an air strike killed one of the men and Israeli ground troops killed the other two.
She could not confirm the target of the attack, but said they probably tried to attack something and infiltrate Israel but they did not succeed.
Militants have launched five attacks in the last two weeks on Israeli crossings that supply humanitarian aid to Gaza, which has been under a crippling embargo since the Islamist Hamas movement seized power there in June.
At least 433 people have been killed, most of them Gaza militants, since Israel and the Palestinians relaunched formal peace talks under US auspices at an international conference in November.