IAF strikes tunnels used to infiltrate into Israel
LAST UPDATED: 08/19/2011 20:51
Palestinian sources say PRC leader was killed on motorcycle in the northern Strip; IAF strikes private vehicle killing 3, Ma'an reports.
![Smoke rises after IAF airstrike in Gaza [file]](../HttpHandlers/ShowImage.ashx?ID=172772 "Smoke rises after IAF airstrike in Gaza [file]")
Smoke rises after IAF airstrike in Gaza [file] Photo: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters
The
IAF struck a number of targets in Gaza Friday overnight in response to
Thursday attacks that claimed the lives of eight people, as well as
continuing rocket fire from the Strip.
Two tunnels and one
warehouse used for manufacturing weapons in southern Gaza were bombed Friday overnight by IAF aircraft, as well as one
site used for terrorist activities in the northern Strip, an IDF
Spokesman's Office statement.
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According to the statement, the tunnels had been used to allow assailants to infiltrate Israel and carry out attacks.
The IAF identified direct hits, and all aircraft returned to Israel safely, the spokesman's statement added.
Shortly before the strike, Palestinian news sources said that three Palestinians had been killed when their private vehicle was struck. Among the dead was one boy, the report said.
Also on Friday, the IAF launched an air strike against a terrorist cell in
the central Gaza Strip after the cell fired a rocket into Israeli
territory, the IDF Spokesman's Office said in a statement. A direct hit was identified in the strike, the statement added.
Minutes earlier, the Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepted a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip toward Ashkelon.
An separate
IAF strike in the northern Gaza Strip Friday evening killed Samed Abdul
Mu'ty Abed, identified by Israeli media as a senior commander in the
Popular Resistance Committees, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.
The
man was riding a motorcycle at the time of the strike, according to
multiple Palestinian reports. Another 22-year-old man was injured in the
strike.
Ma'an
cited medical sources in Gaza saying that another strike targeted a
concrete factory in the northern Strip. The news agency said that 10
Palestinian have been killed by the IDF since Thursday night.
Earlier Friday evening, the
IAF struck terrorists who were firing projectile explosives into Israeli
territory from the northern Gaza Strip in three different locations,
the IDF Spokesman's Office said in a statement.
Israel Air Force aircraft struck four targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday afternoon in response to a series of rockets that hit Israel, one of which left six people injured in Ashdod.
The
army said it struck two weapons production facilities, and two other
terror targets, one in the north and one in the south of the strip. No
injuries were reported.
Earlier on Friday, IAF aircraft struck seven Hamas security installations in
Gaza, killing at least one Palestinian, in further
retaliation for the three-stage terror attack on Thursday.
Gaza
residents said three compounds controlled by Hamas were hit in the
overnight raids. Medical officials said a 13-year-old boy in a nearby
building was killed and 17 people were wounded.
On Thursday evening the IAF bombed the southern
Gaza Strip, killing the leadership of the Popular Resistance Committees
who had orchestrated the attacks.
Eight Israelis, including a soldier from the Golani Brigade,
were killed earlier in the day in the multi-stage attack in the South
carried out by PRC members who infiltrated from Egypt.
The PRC
members killed in the retaliatory IAF air strike included the head of
the terror group Kamal Nirab, who the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency)
said had personally directed and planned the attack.
