Israelis Kill 4 Palestinians in Gaza

By DIAA HADID
July 23, 2007 
The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/22/AR2007072200251.html

JERUSALEM -- An Israeli airstrike killed two Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip Sunday after they fired rockets at a nearby Israeli town, the Israeli military and hospital officials said. 

In all, Israel killed four Palestinian militants in Gaza on Sunday, including two Hamas gunmen. 

The Israeli military said its aircraft hit a rocket launching site after militants there fired rockets at Israel, hitting those responsible. Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Hamzeh said the men belonged to the group and were on a holy mission. 

The military said the men had fired two rockets into the Israeli town of Sderot, just across the border fence, wounding an Israeli woman and damaging a sports center and a school. Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. 

After nightfall, an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a car in Gaza City, witnesses said, but missed. No one was hurt. The Israeli military said the target was an Islamic Jihad militant. 
Earlier in the day, Israeli troops operating in the northern Gaza Strip shot and killed two Hamas gunmen, the militant group and the military said. 

The Hamas fighters were trying to ambush the soldiers, the group said. 

The soldiers entered a few yards into the strip on a routine patrol northeast of the Palestinian town of Beit Lahiya against attempts by militants to tunnel into Israel, the army said. 

Hamas, an armed Islamic movement sworn to Israel's destruction, seized control of Gaza last month after five days of bloody fighting against the rival Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Since then, Israel has sealed Gaza's borders, while Abbas has formed his own government in the West Bank.