At least two activists of the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad were killed on Sunday afternoon in an Israeli air raid in the north of the Gaza Strip, medical sources said. The air strike was against a group of men firing rockets at Israel in the Beit Hanun area, Israeli sources said.
"We targeted two men firing rockets at Israel. We apparently hit them," an army spokesman said.
Earlier, Israeli troops shot and killed two Hamas gunmen in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics said. According to Reuters, they said the bodies of the two men were brought to hospital after they were shot near the site of a former Jewish settlement in Gaza Strip.
An Israeli military spokesman said soldiers had opened fire at two armed men as they approached a border fence with Israel. The troops found later both men carried grenades in addition to their guns, the spokesman added. The soldiers entered a few meters into the Gaza Strip as they conducted a routine patrol northeast of the Palestinian town of Beit Lahiya against attempts by Palestinian activists to tunnel into Israel and carry out attacks against troops, the army said.
