Israel Air Force helicopters on Tuesday night launched an air strike on Gaza, killing a Palestinian terrorist affiliated with the Popular Resistance Committees and wounding three people, according to local reports.
The PRC’s military wing, the An-Nasser Salah Ad-Din Brigades, said in a statement that the leader of its artillery unit, Khaled Samhud, 23, had been killed when the IAF fired a missile at a group of people near Khan Yunis, the Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported.
The French news agency AFP quoted the Brigades as saying: “The PRC confronted the Zionist forces east of Khan Yunis. They hit several of their soldiers and fired a mortar at a gathering of troops.”
An Israel Defense Forces spokesman confirmed Tuesday that the IAF targeted and hit a squad of terrorists after the squad fired mortar shells at a group of IDF soldiers engaged in routine operational activities in the area. No casualties or damage were reported by the IDF.
A Gaza medical official said three Palestinians, an elderly man and two children, were wounded in the IAF strike and were transferred to Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.
On Monday night, the IAF bombed a weapons manufacturing site in central Gaza in response to rocket fire on southern Israeli towns earlier that day. The IDF confirmed a direct hit on the site.
Rocket fire on Israel continues despite a cease-fire announced by Palestinian groups in Gaza on Aug. 26. The cease-fire came after an exchange of fire between both sides following the Aug. 18 terror attack near Eilat that killed eight Israelis.
Over the past month, 145 rockets and 46 mortar shells have been fired into Israel, according to the IDF.
