RAFAH: An Israeli strike on Gaza overnight killed two people whom Palestinian officials described as border guards, but Israel said it had thwarted an attack in the advanced planning stage.
“Two citizens were martyred and another was wounded in an Israeli air strike on a car in Rafah city,” Palestinian health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qudra said.
Officials in Gaza’s Hamas-run Interior Ministry said the air strike killed two border guards and seriously wounded a third as they were patrolling the frontier with Egypt.
The ministry named the two dead men as Lt. Ashraf Saleh, 33, and his deputy, Anis Abu Al-Aynin, 22. The third, who was seriously hurt in the strike, which occurred just before midnight, was also a lieutenant in the security forces.
“The martyrs were on their routine daily business of inspecting and securing the southern border of the Gaza Strip and Egypt,” a ministry statement said.
