Israel killed three Hamas gunmen in Gaza Strip air strikes on Tuesday
which the military said targeted squads preparing to launch rockets
into the Jewish state.
The air force operations followed other
Palestinian attacks, including a bomb blast that wounded an Israeli army
officer patrolling the Gaza border, on a day that saw the isolated,
Hamas-governed enclave receive its first foreign head of state, the emir
of Qatar.
Israeli leaders had vowed retaliation for the morning
bombing on Gaza's boundary fence, but Israeli television said military
actions were put on hold until Qatar's Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani
had left.
The rich Gulf state has had low-level diplomatic ties with Israel and hosts a major US naval base.
Hamas
said three of its gunmen were killed and another three wounded in two
air strike in northern Gaza. It did not comment on Israel's allegation
that they had prepared rocket launches. Six other rockets were fired
across the border on Tuesday, the Israeli military said, though causing
no damage or casualties.
The border bombing was claimed by the
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), one of several
small factions in Gaza that often operate independent of the dominant
Hamas.
Israel's policy is to hold Hamas responsible for any
attacks from the territory, which the Islamist group has controlled
since 2007. Though hostile to Israel, Hamas has mostly sought to avoid
direct clashes as it shores up its rule in the face of more radical
challengers and reaches out to potential allies abroad.
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