- Title: GAZA: Israeli war planes kill three Hamas militants in Northern Gaza
- Date: 13th June 2008
- Summary: (BN15) NORTHERN GAZA, GAZA (JUNE 12, 2008) (REUTERS) (NIGHT SHOTS) WIDE OF WOMAN WALKING NEAR AREA WHERE ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE HIT A HAMAS OUTPOST AND KILLED THREE MILITANTS YOUTH LOOKING FROM HOUSE DOOR PEOPLE STANDING NEAR AREA WHERE AIRSTRIKE KILLED THREE MILITANTS (SOUNDBITE) (Arabic) OUM MOHAMAD AIRSTRIKE WITNESS AND RESIDENT OF AREA SAID: "They hit over there by the cac
- Embargoed: 28th June 2008 13:00
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- Story Text: Israeli air strike killed three Hamas militants in Northern Gaza on Late Thursday (June 12) , Hamas and local medical workers said.
A missile fired from an Israeli aircraft killed three Hamas gunmen who were trying to launch rockets into Israel from a cemetery in the northern Gaza Strip, the Israeli army said.
The latest deaths brought the toll for the day to 12 Palestinians killed.
In the morning, Israeli troops shot dead two militants near a Gaza border crossing, medical workers and militant groups said.
Afterwards, an explosion destroyed a Hamas bomb-maker's house in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing at least seven Palestinians, The explosion on the house in where a baby was among the dead and 25 people were wounded, came a day after Israel's Security Cabinet decided to give Egypt more time to try to broker a ceasefire under which militants would cease rocket salvoes and Israeli forces would halt Gaza operations.
Hamas said the house of Ahme Hamouda, whom it described as one of its senior bomb-makers, was destroyed by an Israeli air strike but Israel described it as an internal blast.
The explosion destroyed the two-storey dwelling and damaged several other homes in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, an area from which militants frequently launch rockets and mortar shells into southern Israel.
An Israeli military spokeswoman denied any Israeli involvement in the Beit Lahiya explosion Medics said at least four Palestinians -- including an infant whose body was held up to television cameras in a hospital -- were killed in the explosion in Beit Lahiya.
Hamas said Hamouda survived but may have been wounded in the blast and the bodies of three Hamas gunmen were found later in the rubble.
In response, Hamas fired over 20 rockets and mortar bombs into southern Israel, injuring one person. Over 40 missiles landed in Israeli territory during the day.
Hamas has long demanded that Israel ease its blockade of the Gaza Strip as a condition of a ceasefire, but in an apparent softening, the group's leader in Gaza, Ismail Haniyeh, said on Thursday it would accept a specified timeline for opening Gaza's border crossings after the truce comes into effect.
Israeli officials had no immediate comment but they have argued in the past that opening the crossings would only serve to bolster Hamas.
The Israeli Security Cabinet said on Wednesday it had instructed the military to ready for a possible broad operation in the Hamas-controlled territory, should truce efforts fail.
Another Israeli air strike wounded two Hamas gunmen, the group said. An Israeli spokeswoman confirmed the strike and added that troops shot at a tractor which exploded near the border in the northern Gaza Strip. There were no casualties. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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