The commander of the Popular Resistance Committees in the northern Gaza Strip died Thursday along with his deputy in an Israeli air strike. Faik Abu al-Kamsan and Mahmoud al-Basyouni were killed when a missile fired by an Israeli aircraft hit their car in the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip.
A third man, who has yet to be identified, was also killed in the strike.
A female suicide bomber blew herself up Thursday afternoon next to Israeli troops operating near the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia, lightly wounding two soldiers. Hamas claimed responsibility and identified the bomber as Fatma Omar An-Najar from the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip. The bomber's family said she was 64 years old.
The bomber's oldest daughter, Fatheya, explained her motives. "They [the Israelis] destroyed her house, they killed her grandson - my son. Another grandson is in a wheelchair with an amputated leg," she said. "She and I, we went to the mosque. We were looking for martyrdom."
Early Thursday morning, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian man in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinians reported. Hospital officials reported that the man, about 20 years old, died by machine gun fire from an Israeli tank unit near the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia. Another man was injured, they said.
Later in the day, two other Palestinians were killed in northern Gaza Strip.
Earlier, an Israeli aircraft attacked a money changer's office in Gaza City, hitting a power transformer and knocking out electricity in much of the city. There were no injuries in that incident.
Meanwhile, Damascus-based Hamas political chief Khaled Meshal arrived in Cairo on Thursday for talks on a prisoner exchange deal involving captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.
The delegation consists of several senior Damascus-based Hamas leaders, including the director of Hamas' Damascus offices, Emad al-Ilmi, and Mohammed Nassar, a member of the movement's political bureau. The Hamas officials are set to hold meetings with senior Egyptian officials, including Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman.
