Mohammed Abu Shamala, Mohammed Barhoum and Raed al-Attar died in the attack near the southern town of Rafah, which Gaza officials said killed at least 10.
An Israeli was severely injured as rockets were fired into Israel on Thursday, the army said.
Hostilities between the two sides resumed after talks on a long-term ceasefire deal collapsed on Tuesday.
Israel has vowed to pursue its campaign until "full security" is achieved.
Six weeks of fierce fighting have left at least 2,138 people dead, according to officials. All but 67 of the dead are Palestinians, with most of them said to be civilians.
In other developments:
An Israeli was severely injured as rockets were fired into Israel on Thursday, the army said.
Hostilities between the two sides resumed after talks on a long-term ceasefire deal collapsed on Tuesday.
Israel has vowed to pursue its campaign until "full security" is achieved.
Six weeks of fierce fighting have left at least 2,138 people dead, according to officials. All but 67 of the dead are Palestinians, with most of them said to be civilians.
In other developments:
- The Israeli air force attacked and "hit" six Islamic Jihad activists reportedly poised to fire rockets at Israel from northern Gaza
- An Israeli air strike killed four Palestinians as they were burying relatives killed earlier at a graveyard in Gaza City, medics told AFP news agency
- At least six Palestinians, four of them children, were killed in Israeli attacks overnight in the northern town of Beit Lahiya and in Gaza City, AFP reports
- Missile after missile' Israel's strike on Rafah demolished a four-storey building.
Local man Hamza Khalifa told AP news agency there had been no warning: "We only heard multiple F-16 [warplane] missiles, one after the other, six or seven missiles."
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the "superior intelligence" of the domestic Shin Bet security service and the "precise execution" of the attack.
"Operation Protective Edge will continue until its objective has been fulfilled - the restoration of long-term quiet for the citizens of Israel while causing significant damage to terrorist infrastructure," he said.
The three commanders killed were key to operations including smuggling, tunnel construction and capturing the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit in 2006, the BBC's Yolande Knell reports.
"The assassinations of the three Qassam [Hamas military wing] leaders is a grave crime," Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters news agency. "But it will not break our people and Israel will pay the price for it."
Israel's military said it had carried out 20 attacks on targets in Gaza during the night in response to militant rocket attacks. Since talks on extending the ceasefire failed, 213 rockets had been fired at Israel, it added.
In another development, Hamas warned foreign airlines to stop flying to and from Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport from Thursday.
Talks off Hamas also confirmed it was abandoning efforts to negotiate a durable ceasefire with Israel.
0 comments:
Post a Comment