 Two Palestinian security service members and four other Palestinians were killed late Sunday in at least four Israeli missile strikes in the southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian security sources and hospital officials said. Twenty-four other Palestinians, including civilians, were wounded, four of them seriously, when the Israeli army fired at least four air-to-ground missiles at a national security service position in the Khan Yunis sector, security officials said. One civilian dead was identified as a 24-year-old resident of the Mohammad Zoarub district. The name of another victim was given as 19-year-old Abdel Rahman Al Nimr. It was not immediately clear if he was an armed militant or a civilian. A spokesman for the Israeli army said the first two attacks had targeted "armed Palestinians who had approached (Israeli) forces," adding that the military had stepped up its activities in the area following dozens of recent mortar attacks by Palestinians on Jewish settlements. A third missile targeted a Palestinian planting a bomb that was apparently meant to go off as Israeli forces were driving by. The spokesman said a fourth missile hit four armed militants who had come close to Israeli units.
| Bet they don't get so close anymore. |
Palestinian security officials said about 30 Israeli armored vehicles and seven bulldozers entered a 800-meter section of the autonomous Palestinian sector from Khan Yunis, occupying an entire neighborhood. |