Gaza: 2 killed in IDF airstrike

An IDF aircraft fired a number of missiles at a Palestinian vehicle moving in the central Gaza Strip, near the al-Bureij refugee camp Wednesday evening. Palestinians reported that two people – the driver and a passerby, were killed in the strike.

IDF sources said that the strike - a joint IAF-Shin Bet operation - targeted a car carrying several terror operatives. According to the army, the vehicle was loaded with weapons and munitions and the men killed were Popular Resistance Committees members who were transporting Qassams.  

Palestinian sources said the two men belonged to the "weaponry manufacturing array" of the Salah al-Din Brigades, the military wing of the Popular Resistance Committees.

Earlier Wednesday, the IDF accidentally struck a car carrying Palestinians civilians, killing three family members. Military sources confirmed that a vehicle traveling near the strike's original target – a terror cell involved in the firing of rocket attacks – was accidentally hit, adding that the incident was being looked into.

Meanwhile, Qassam and mortar shell barrages at Israel continued Wednesday evening. Three mortars were fired at the western Negev, one hitting a house in a kibbutz in the Eshkol Regional Council, causing several people to suffer shock.

An exceptionally heavy salvo hit the western Negev in the afternoon hours, as rockets kept pounding Sderot, Ashkelon and their surroundings. The rockets caused damages to two buildings and a factory in Sderot.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak commented on the situation in the south Wednesday evening, saying, "We increased, and will increase, the pressure and the targeted operations against terrorists. This isn’t simple, but we are doing the maximum to hit terror operatives in order to stop the Qassam attacks."

Barak also commended the residents of the western Negev for their resilience in face of the attacks.

Hanan Greenberg and Shmulik Hadad contributed to the report