Two Hamas gunmen were killed early yesterday in an exchange of fire with Israeli soldiers during the army's latest operation in the Gaza Strip, sources on both sides said.
Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, said two of its members died in the shootout near the northern town of Beit Hanun. Initial reports said the gunmen were killed in an air raid.
An army spokesman said troops operating near the border fence opened fire on two armed Palestinians who were approaching the barrier between Gaza and Israel and reported hitting them.
GROUND, AIR STRIKES
The latest operation came a day after heavy Israeli ground and air strikes killed nine Palestinians in the densely-populated territory where the Islamist movement Hamas violently seized control in mid-June.
Among the dead were two brothers, members of the radical Islamic Jihad group who were targeted inside their home. The men's mother and sister also died in the attack.
Thursday's raids also left 48 people wounded and several houses destroyed, witnesses and medics said.
Israel has been carrying out near daily operations in Gaza aiming to halt near daily rocket and mortar fire from the territory.
TENSION
The latest Israeli strikes came shortly before US President George W. Bush's visit to the region next week in a bid to advance Middle East peace talks.
"The parties are continuing to try to meet and talk, but obviously it's fraught with a lot of tension," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
Yesterday's deaths bring to 6,032 the number of people killed since the start of the second Palestinian uprising in September 2000, the vast majority of them Palestinians.
On Thursday, a rocket landed without causing injuries about 15km from the Gaza border in the coastal city of Ashkelon -- the furthest a rocket launched by Gaza militants had ever landed inside the Jewish state, the army said.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
Local officials from Russia’s ruling party have caused controversy by presenting mothers of soldiers killed in Ukraine with gifts of meat grinders, an appliance widely used to describe Russia’s brutal tactics on the front line. The United Russia party in the northern Murmansk region posted photographs on social media showing officials smiling as they visited bereaved mothers with gifts of flowers and boxed meat grinders for International Women’s Day on Saturday, which is widely celebrated in Russia. The post included a message thanking the “dear moms” for their “strength of spirit and the love you put into bringing up your sons.” It
DISASTROUS VISIT: The talks in Saudi Arabia come after an altercation at the White House that led to the Ukrainian president leaving without signing a minerals deal Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was due to arrive in Saudi Arabia yesterday, a day ahead of crucial talks between Ukrainian and US officials on ending the war with Russia. Highly anticipated negotiations today on resolving the three-year conflict would see US and Ukrainian officials meet for the first time since Zelenskiy’s disastrous White House visit last month. Zelenskiy yesterday said that he would meet Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the nation’s de facto leader, after which his team “will stay for a meeting on Tuesday with the American team.” At the talks in the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, US
RSS