- Title: GAZA: Israeli airstrike in southern Gaza
- Date: 5th August 2007
- Summary: CROWD GATHERED OUTSIDE HOSPITAL
- Embargoed: 20th August 2007 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA5VCOJE5Y08M8HH0X3IXT0JU45
- Story Text: Israeli air strike in southern Gaza kills two Palestinian militants.
An Israeli air strike on two vehicles killed two Palestinian militants in the southern Gaza Strip on Saturday (August 4), ambulance crews and local residents said.
An Israeli army spokeswoman in Tel Aviv confirmed the military had carried out an attack in the area. She gave no details.
Ambulance crews and residents in the town of Rafah, near Gaza's border with Egypt, said missiles fired from an Israeli aircraft hit a car and a truck, killing two members of the Islamic Jihad group and wounding 15 other people.
Some residents said the truck appeared to have been disguised as an Israeli tank transporter and speculated militants might have been planning to use it as a decoy to approach and attack Israel's nearby Kerem Shalom border terminal.
Islamic Jihad has been behind numerous rocket attacks from the Gaza Strip against southern Israel. Minutes after the air strikes, several rockets hit Sderot, an Israeli town near Gaza, causing no casualties.
The Gaza Strip is controlled by Hamas Islamists, who routed fighters from President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction in a brief civil war in June. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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