Israeli strikes on the Gaza Strip killed nine Hamas militants on Tuesday as the Jewish state went on high alert a day after the first suicide bombing on its soil by Palestinian militants in a year.An Israeli air raid hit a police station near the southern Gaza town of Khan Yunis hours after an early morning incursion by soldiers in the nearby border town of Rafah left two Hamas men dead. Medics said seven militants from the Islamist movement were killed in the late afternoon air strike and another two were wounded. "The men were in afternoon prayers inside the police station when the missile struck," said a security official for Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since violently seizing it in June.
An Israeli army spokesman said the attack targeted a Hamas military position "in response to the Qassam (rocket) launchings that hit (the southern Israeli town of) Sderot this morning."
Shortly after the strike, Hamas militants fired another four rockets at the town, wounding two Israelis, as the movement vowed to avenge Tuesday's strikes. "This blood will not be shed in vain; this crime will not go unanswered and the Israeli occupation will pay a heavy price," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told AFP shortly after the air strike.
Israel was already on high alert after a suicide bombing on Monday in the southern desert town of Dimona killed a woman and wounded nearly a dozen other people, in the first such attack since January 2007. Following the air strike, Hamas's armed wing claimed full responsibility for the Dimona attack, the first time it has claimed a suicide bombing since August 2004. According to a Hamas statement, the two bombers, Mohammed al-Hirbawi and Shadi al-Zaghair, came from the southern West Bank city of Hebron.