Israel strike on Gaza kills two

In a statement, Hamas accused Israel of having "assassinated" the two Palestinians and injuring one other on Wednesday in an airstrike on a vehicle in the town of Rafah, near the territory's southern border with Egypt.

"The martyrs were carrying out a routine mission of monitoring and securing the southern border between Gaza and Egypt," the statement said.

Confirming the attack, the Israeli military said it had targeted what it called "terror operatives" who were involved in smuggling explosives from Egypt into Gaza.

It identified one of the men as a member of a "terrorist group sponsored by Hamas" who had been "in the final stages of preparing to carry out a terror attack against Israeli civilians".

Israel said the man had been involved in operations "that included smuggling explosive devices into Israel via the Israel-Egypt border."

A second man targeted was a militant involved in smuggling "two terrorists into Egypt in order to carry out a suicide attack in Israel" and purchasing weapons, Israel said.

In a separate incident earlier on Wednesday the army accused Gaza militants of firing two mortar rounds into southern Israel earlier on Wednesday. No casualties were reported.

Routine attacks

Israel frequently responds to such attacks by launching airstrikes against militants in Gaza. Last week six Palestinian gunmen were killed in two attacks within a 12-hour period. Three of the dead were accused of having fired short-range missiles at an Israeli town, while the others were suspected of planting explosives along the border.

In June Palestinian militants fired more than 150 rockets at southern Israel, wounding five people. Israel responded with airstrikes that killed 15 Palestinians.

Gaza was seized by Hamas in 2007 after a military struggle with the Fatah faction of the Western-backed Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. The conflict was triggered in 2006 when Hamas stormed to victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections.

ccp/av (AFP, Reuters)