Six members of Hamas were killed yesterday by a booby-trapped device in Gaza City, one day after a land mine placed by the terror group killed four crewmen in an Israeli tank.
Witnesses said the bomb – placed in a remote-controlled glider recently acquired by Hamas – went off when several members were inspecting it yesterday.
The militant group claimed that Israel booby-trapped the glider – a drone that Hamas said it had obtained for new “operations.”
The dead included Nidal Farhat, a senior Hamas militant on Israel’s most-wanted list. Three others were wounded.
Israel took no responsibility for the blast, but hours before, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz vowed “to strike hard at our enemy Hamas” in response to Saturday’s tank attack.
Early this morning, Israeli tanks pressed into Gaza City, blowing up an apartment building believed to be the home of one of the planners of Saturday’s tank attack.
Two Palestinians – including a policeman – were killed and four were wounded in the Israeli assault.
Hamas vowed revenge.
“We will retaliate for their new crime . . . It will be a very expensive price,” said Hamas official Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi.
Three other Palestinians were killed in the West Bank city of Nablus yesterday during a separate incursion to arrest a high-ranking Palestinian official.
Palestinian gunmen shot at Israeli soldiers as they entered a building to arrest Tayseer Khaled, a representative of the leftist Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine in the PLO Executive Committee, the top decision-making body of the PLO.
Israeli troops fired back, killing three and wounding 20 others.