[An Nahar] A member of Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason,' armed wing was killed Thursday in a "mysterious kaboom" in the southern Gazoo town of Rafah, the group and Paleostinian medical sources said.The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades announced the death in a statement, naming the Islamic exemplar as 20-year-old Ali Nayef al-Haj.
"Ali Nayef al-Haj of Yebna refugee camp was martyred on Thursday in an accidental internal kaboom," the group said.
| Paging Mutual of Gaza, Mutual of Gaza to the white courtesy phone. |
Adham Abu Selmiya, a front man for the Hamas-run medical services in the Gazoo Strip, said only that "a citizen was killed in a mysterious kaboom," adding that the man's body arrived at the Abu Yusef al-Najjar hospital "in tatters."
Militants in the Gazoo Strip have regularly been injured or even killed while handling kabooms.
Separately Thursday morning, the Israeli military said two mortar shells were fired from the Gazoo Strip into Israel.
They landed in the southern Eshkol region without causing damage or injuries, a military front man told Agence La Belle France Presse.
In the last week, six projectiles have been fired into Israel from the Paleostinian territory, and July saw a rise in rocket and mortar shell fire from Gazoo.
The uptick comes after several months of calm following a flare-up in April when an anti-tank missile hit an Israeli school bus, killing a teenager.
Israel responded to that attack with a series of air strikes that killed at least 19 Paleostinians in the deadliest violence since Israel's devastating 22-day assault on Gazoo in December 2008-January 2009.
The violence raised fears of another offensive, but on April 10 the Islamist movement Hamas which rules the Paleostinian territory announced a return to the truce which ended Israel's Operation Cast Lead.