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Israelis kill W. Bank militant
Israeli troops in the West Bank say they killed a Palestinian militant. An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops had spotted an armed gunman in al-Ein camp near Nablus and opened fire. Earlier, the Israeli air force also hit the homes of several senior Palestinian militants in Gaza, wounding at least one person. On Wednesday, a wave of militant rocket fire from Gaza killed an Israeli woman in the Israeli town of Sderot and seriously wounded a man.
As they often do in Gaza, Israeli forces phoned the five houses beforehand to warn of the coming attacks. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the militants' homes were hit because they were being used to store weapons and to hold “terrorist meetings”.
Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz said Palestinian militants would pay a heavy price for the attacks. The first Israeli helicopters struck the Shathi refugee camp outside Gaza City at just before midnight on Wednesday, hitting the home of a prominent member of the Popular Resistance Committees. Shortly afterwards, similar attacks hit the homes of senior Hamas militants in the Jabaliya refugee camp and in Rafah.
At least one person was wounded in the first attack, Palestinian officials said. Israel had been promising retaliation for Wednesday's wave of rocket attacks on southern Israel that were launched from Gaza. Militants from the armed wing of the governing Hamas movement and Islamic Jihad said they had fired the rockets into the Israeli town of Sderot.
The Palestinians said they were retaliating for recent Israeli attacks on Gaza, including an artillery strike on Beit Hanoun last week that killed 19 civilians. In Geneva, the UN condemned Israel over the deaths, which an Israeli military investigation has blamed on technical failures.
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