At least two Palestinians died and seven wounded, one seriously, in an Israeli missile strike on the Gaza City home of a Hamas leader Thursday night. An Israeli spokesman confirmed the air strike targeted the house of a Hamas commander, Sharaf Farwana, in the Sajaiyeh section of Gaza City near the border with Israel.
Farwana survived the attack, but the strike killed his brother, 25-year-old Ayman Farwana, and a 8-year-old girl.
This strike came after six Palestinians were killed in a clash between Israeli forces and Palestinian resistance fighters in southern Gaza Strip earlier in the day.
Israeli forces killed three Palestinian fighters and three bystanders during the raid in the Gaza Strip early Thursday, witnesses and medics said. According to Reuters, they said troops backed by helicopter gunships entered the village of Abassan under dark, setting off clashes. The slain bystanders included a man and his teenage son, doctors said.
The Israeli army confirmed its forces were operating in the area, saying they were looking for facilities used by "militants". Troops fired on gunmen who tried to attack them, an Israeli army spokesman said.
A spokesman for the Hamas military wing on Thursday vowed its members would take harsh revenge for the Israeli operation.
"In light of the ugly crimes in Khan Yunis and the northern Gaza Strip, we will bombard and strike in every place, north and south. The response will be powerful and will cause the earth to tremble. The enemy must now wait patiently for our actions," he said.
Also Thursday, a Hamas members identified as Majid Darbiya was assassinated in Beit Lahia by unknown assailants.
Meanwhile, an American student was freed late Wednesday after being held for a day by Palestinians in the West Bank. He was unharmed. Michael Leighton Phillips, 24, was brought to security headquarters in Nablus, where he was joined by a former mayor, Ghassan Shakaa, and a security chief, both members of the Fatah.
Earlier Wednesday, a previously unknown Palestinian armed group claimed it had abducted an American student to "confront" the United States and force the release of some Palestinians held in Israeli jails. The group made demands to reporters in the Gaza Strip.
"Our demands are the immediate release of all imprisoned women and minors," a masked member of Ansar Assuna told reporters in the Gaza Strip.
