Israeli airstrikes kill 4 Hamas militants

GAZA CITY: Tensions soared around Gaza yesterday after Israeli air raids killed four militants and Palestinian armed groups fired more than 70 rockets at southern Israel, seriously wounding two people.
It was the biggest surge in cross-border violence since June.
The latest escalation began on Tuesday evening, shortly after the end of a high-profile visit to Gaza by the emir of Qatar, when militants fired six rockets at southern Israel.
Israel immediately carried out twin air strikes over northern Gaza, killing two militants from Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, and injured another seven people, medics said.
Another Israeli raid near the southern city of Rafah early yesterday killed a third militant, and later in the morning, medics said an armed Palestinian who was seriously wounded in one of the evening strikes had died of his injuries.
Updated figures from the Israeli military showed that 72 rockets and mortar shells were fired at Israel since midnight, leaving six people injured, two seriously and four lightly.
Police confirmed that two Thai nationals working in the fields near the Gaza border were “seriously to critically wounded” while a third sustained light injuries.
The other injured were all Israelis.
The military also said its anti-missile system had brought down eight rockets fired towards the southern coastal city of Ashkelon.
Hamas militants and the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) claimed responsibility for the rocket fire, but did not specify how many projectiles they had fired.
As a result of the violence, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak cancelled talks with visiting EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton to tour the Gaza border, his office said.
Hamas also expressed anger over the spike in violence, with spokesman Fawzi Barhum saying: “The occupation is responsible for every drop of blood in this aggressive escalation.”
Health officials said the Rafah strike killed 23-year-old Mohammed Al-Sheikh, with the PRC confirming he was one of their militants.
And later in the morning they said Yussef Abu Jalhum, 28, had died from injuries sustained on Tuesday night, with the Qassam Brigades, saying he was one of their members.
His death raised to four the number of militants killed within a 12-hour period.
Israeli aircraft again raided northern Gaza in the morning, but Palestinian security sources said there were no fresh casualties.
Tensions have been high around Gaza for the past few weeks, but peaked early on Tuesday when an Israeli soldier was severely injured by a roadside bomb in an attack claimed by the armed wing of the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.