Israel air strike kills three Palestinian militants in Gaza
Gavin Rabinowitz
JERUSALEM, Gavin Rabinowitz - Israeli warplanes killed three Islamic Jihad gunmen in an air strike on Sunday as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that the military would respond harshly to rocket and mortar fire from Gaza.
The aircraft targeted a group of Palestinian militants in the central Gaza Strip, killing the three with an air-to-ground missile, Palestinian medics said.
The air raid caps a week that has seen an upsurge in tit-for-tat violence along the Gaza-Israel border, following a period of relative calm since Israel ended an offensive into Gaza a year ago in response to rocket fire.
Netanyahu warned earlier the same day that Israel would react harshly to any renewed rocket and mortar attacks from the enclave ruled by the Islamist movement Hamas.
He said more than 20 rockets and mortars had been fired into Israel in the past week.
"I view this very seriously," he told the weekly cabinet meeting. "The IDF (army) responded immediately, attacking missile factories in the Gaza Strip and tunnels through which Iran smuggles missiles and rockets into the strip."
Three Palestinians were killed when Israel bombed smuggling tunnels on Friday.
"Our government's policy is clear," Netanyahu said. "We will respond to any firing into our territory strongly and immediately."
Militants fired four mortar rounds at southern Israel on Sunday, without causing casualties. The air raid later struck a location east of Deir el-Balah in central Gaza.
Muawiya Hassanein, head of Gaza emergency services, said the bodies of three men were taken to a hospital in the town. They were all members of the militant Islamic Jihad group, he said.
The Israeli military said one of the dead, who they identified as Awad Abu Nasir, was a senior Islamic Jihad field commander behind a string of attacks on Israel.
Islamic Jihad later issued a call for all Palestinian "resistance factions to unite against the enemy."
It was the latest violence along Gaza's border, which has been mostly quiet since a war which Israel launched against Hamas on December 27, 2008 ended with mutual ceasefires last January 18.
The ceasefires have largely held despite violations by both sides, while Hamas has mostly succeeded in restraining Islamic Jihad, a smaller rival Islamist group.
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