Israeli air strike kills six in Gaza

GAZA CITY—An Israeli airstrike in the northern Gaza Strip killed six Palestinian militants early Wednesday, medics said, including three from the Hamas movement that has ruled Gaza since June. The overnight helicopter strike near the border fence with Israel wounded another 11 people, Palestinian medics said.
Earlier reports indicated that the fighters were all members of the armed wing of Hamas, but in a statement released Wednesday the Islamist movement said only three of the fighters came from its own ranks. Another two militants came from the Popular Resistance Committees, and the sixth was a member of the armed wing of the radical Islamic Jihad movement.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said there was an operation in the northern Gaza Strip during which Israeli troops returned fire after coming under attack from small arms and anti-tank rockets and before calling in aircraft.
The latest deaths bring to 6,020 the number of people killed since the start of the second Palestinian uprising in September 2000, the vast majority of them Palestinians, according to an AFP tally. The overnight helicopter strike near the border fence with Israel wounded another 11 people, Palestinian medics said.
On Tuesday Israeli shelling on central Gaza killed one member of Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in June last year after violently ousting security forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.—Agencies