GAZA CITY – Three Palestinians were killed Sunday in an Israeli air strikeon the Gaza Strip, the health ministry in the enclave said.
Ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said emergency crews were transportingthe bodies of the dead, who appeared to be in their early teens, tohospital in Gaza.
The Israeli military said that one of its aircrafts had fired on a group ofPalestinians near the Gaza border.
“A short while ago, three Palestinians approached the security fence in thesouthern Gaza Strip, attempted to damage it and were apparently involved inplacing an improvised explosive device adjacent to it,” a statement said.
“In response, an IDF (Israel Defence Forces) aircraft fired towards them.”
Tensions have been high along the Gaza-Israel frontier since Palestiniansbegan a wave of border protests in March.
At least 217 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the months ofdemonstrations and clashes along the border.
One Israeli soldier has been killed during the violence over the sameperiod.
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Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, run by Islamist movement Hamas,have fought three wars since 2008.
Several military flare-ups have occurred in the months since the protestsbegan, prompting fears of a new war between the two sides.
The latest came when Palestinian militants from Friday into Saturday fireddozens of rockets into southern Israel, which responded with extensive airstrikes.
The violence came to an end after Islamic Jihad, the Palestinian militantgroup that launched the rockets, said it had agreed to an Egyptian-brokeredtruce.
Israel says it holds Hamas responsible for any violence coming from theGaza Strip and has accused the group of using the protests as a cover toattack its border. – APP/AFP
