GAZA/JERUSALEM: At least eight Palestinian militants were killed and three others were injured in raids by Israeli warplanes on the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, according to medical sources.
The attacks were in response to the firing of dozens of missiles from the Gaza Strip against Israel, amid growing tensions between the two sides after the murder of three Jewish seminary students and the consequent revenge killing of a Palestinian youth.
Ashraf al-Qidra, a spokesman for emergency services in the Gaza Strip, said six Palestinian militants were killed, while two others were injured Sunday in shelling in Rafah, on the border with Egypt.
The al-Aqsa TV channel identified those dead as members of the al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of the Hamas Palestinian movement.
The victims were inside a tunnel which was bombed Sunday morning, but their bodies could not be recovered until the evening.
Two Islamic Jihad members were also killed and another was injured in an Israeli attack on the al-Bureij Palestinian refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, according to Hamas.
The Israeli army confirmed the raids and said they were aimed at preventing more rocket attacks on Israel.
An Israeli soldier was wounded after a rocket from the Gaza Strip hit the Eshkol region, in southern Israel, according to the same source.
The bodies of three Israeli youths were found a week ago in a forest in the West Bank, very near the place where they had gone missing 19 days earlier.
Israel blamed Hamas, which has denied any involvement in the murders.
A day after, Palestinian teenager Mohammed Abu Khdeir was bundled into a car in East Jerusalem and his charred body was found shortly after in a revenge killing which has led to the arrest by Israeli authorities of six Jewish suspects.