Two Palestinians were killed and at least eight others wounded Wednesday morning during Israeli raids in southeast Gaza Strip, witnesses and hospital officials said.
Emergency medical staff evacuated two dead bodies and three injured militants from near Sufa commercial crossing in the east of Rafah city, sources at the European hospital near Rafah said without confirming if the dead were also gunmen.
Hamas said the raid targeted a group of its fighters and the dead were members of Ezz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, the movement's armed wing.
According to the witnesses, Israeli aircraft fired two rockets into a group of Palestinian fighters who were exchanging fire with an invading Israeli force made up of seven tanks and four bulldozers.
Shortly earlier, an air strike at a group of militants, belongs to the Islamic Jihad movement and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PRC), has moderately wounded five gunmen.
Meanwhile, Israel's radio said a soldier was lightly hurt during the incursion.
Bolstered by the tanks and air cover, the Israeli bulldozers were leveling land and destroying green houses, the residents said.
Hamas said it fired 26 mortar shells in southeast Gaza Strip since the morning, targeting the invading troops.
The Israeli army always rolls into border areas of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, saying the raids are intended to distance militants from security fence that separates between Gaza and Israel.
The incursion comes as Hamas plans to send its supporters to rally near Sufa crossing in protest of about one-year-old closure Israel imposes on the Gaza Strip. The demonstration is scheduled to take place on Friday.
Source:Xinhua
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