Gaza truce under fire after Israeli strikes kills militants

Israeli airstrikes killed 3 Palestinians 48 hours after militant agreed to end rocket attacks on Israel.

Israeli air strikes killed three Palestinians,with the first incident prompting mortar fire into Israel,days after armed groups agreed to a temporary truce.

The exchange of fire across the Gaza border raised fears of a fresh descent into violence just 48 hours after militant factions agreed to end rocket attacks on southern Israel on condition that the air force also stopped its raids.

Ismael al-Ismar,a leader in the Al-Quds Brigades — the armed wing of Islamic Jihad — died when a missile ploughed into his car in the southern city of Rafah near the Egyptian border,witnesses and the militant group said.

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An Israeli military spokesman said the strike targeted an activist linked to Islamic Jihad,who was implicated in attempted terrorist actions in the Sinai.

Israeli public radio linked Ismar to last week’s attacks on southern Israel’s border with Egypt which killed eight Israelis.

(He) financed the attack in the south of the country last week and was responsible for financing a major attack that terrorists were planning to carry out in the near future.

Several hours after Ismar’s death,two mortar shells hit the Eshkol region,which flanks the Israel-Gaza border,Israeli police said.

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Al-Quds Brigade claimed the attack and said it had fired six shells towards the Kissufim border crossing,in response to Ismar’s killing.

Immediately afterwards,the air force hit two terrorists who had fired rockets at Israel,the army said in a raid which Palestinian medics said moderately wounded two Islamic Jihad militants near Deir al-Balah.

Palestinian medics later reported finding the body of Ismael Amoum,65,in the same area,saying it had been blown to pieces.

In a third strike,Palestinian medical sources said 20-year-old Attiyeh Moqat had been killed,and the Al-Quds Brigade claimed him as a member. Another Palestinian was wounded,said medical sources who had initially identified the dead man as Mohammed Moqat.

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Israeli police said the air strike came after four rockets slammed into southern Israel without causing casualties or damages.

The Al-Quds Brigade said in a statement they fired several rockets at Israeli towns,including the large city of Beersheva in southern Israel but the army and police did not confirm the claim.

The radical Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) also claimed responsibility for two rockets fired on Israel.