An Israeli air strike killed a commander of an armed Palestinian group and injured four others in the Gaza Strip late on Tuesday, the group said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said Israel had launched the strike against gunmen "planning to fire rockets at southern Israel" and a security source said a gunman had been killed.
The raid came a day after the Popular Resistance Committees said its members had fired a mortar at Israel in response to a military raid. In a statement, cited by Reuters, the Palestinian group accused Israel of carrying out a "targeted killing" by aiming aerial fire at its armed members while they were in the town of Khan Younis. It said the attack had killed local commander Jihad Smairi.
