5 Hamas men killed in Israel air strikes

A Palestinian boy hits a burning armoured vehicle of Palestinian Authority with a stick as security forces clashes with Islamic militants in a bid to stop mounting violence unravelling a seven-month informal truce with Israel yesterday in Gaza City. Two Palestinian civilian bystanders were killed and more than a dozen other wounded in the clashes. PHOTO: AFP

Three Hamas militants were killed as they were travelling in a van that was completely destroyed in what witnesses said was an Israeli missile strike on an eastern district of Gaza City on Friday.

"We have three dead. They are all members of Hamas and five civilians wounded, including a child," medical sources told AFP in Gaza City after the raid. There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army.

An AFP correspondent saw a headless corpse and the gutted car following a massive explosion, just hours after Palestinian security forces clashed with militants from radical movement Hamas in the same area.

Witnesses said they saw a missile slam into a small van, devastating the vehicle and sending shrapnel soaring into the air.

In the West Bank, Israeli helicopters fired three rockets near the town of Salfit, south of the main northern city of Nablus and not far from the sprawling Jewish settlement of Ariel, Palestinian security sources said.

Occupants Rabih Harb, 27 and Mohammed Ayash, 25, were killed and a third member of Hamas wounded after the rockets slammed into an industrial area, the security sources said.

As local leaders of the armed wing of Hamas, the Ezzedin al-Qassam Brigades, they had been wanted by the Israeli army for two years, the sources added.

"They were important leaders in the Qassam Brigades in Salfit. They were shot by Israeli Apache helicopters," a security source told AFP.

Meanwhile, Palestinian police and Hamas militants exchanged fire in a crowded Gaza City neighbourhood yesterday, and at least two people were killed and nine wounded in some of the worst fighting among Palestinians in recent years.

Palestinian security forces were placed on high alert.