Israeli Defense Forces killed at least five Palestinians and a commander from the Palestinian resistance group Hamas in the illegally blockaded Gaza Strip on Sunday, Palestinian health officials said.
Gaza health ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said six Palestinians were killed. One of the dead was a local commander for Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, a local hospital reported.
Six others were wounded.
Palestinian security sources said the clash occurred east of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip.
In a statement late Sunday, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigade said undercover Israeli forces drove a civilian vehicle into the Gaza Strip and shot dead one of the group’s commanders. The group said some of its members chased the car down, which prompted deadly Israeli airstrikes.
Local witnesses also said Israeli planes fired over 20 missiles into open areas in the area where the incident took place.
The Israeli military said in a brief statement that: “During IDF (Israel Defense Forces) operational activity in the Gaza Strip, an exchange of fire evolved.”
A Hamas spokesman denounced a “cowardly Israeli attack.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu decided to cut short his visit to Paris for events marking 100 years since the end of World War I due to events that transpired in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, officials said.
Sunday’s exchange of fire came as Israel and Hamas appeared to be making progress toward an unofficial cease-fire.
Israel last week allowed Qatar to deliver $15 million to civil servants working under Hamas, while Hamas scaled back weekly demonstrations along the Israeli border.
It was not immediately clear what sparked Sunday’s fighting. Shortly after the exchange of fire, air raid sirens sounded in southern Israel, indicating rocket fire from Gaza.
