An explosion in the northern Gaza Strip killed a Palestinian gunman and critically wounded another, medical workers said on Saturday.
Palestinian sources said the explosion in Beit Hanoun was caused by an Israeli air strike, but the IDF Spokesperson's Office said it was the result of a "Hamas
work accident" and denied launching any aerial assault.
According to the Palestinians, the gunmen were from the Poplar Resistance Committees' armed wing, the Salah al-Din Brigades. The group's spokesman, Abu Mujahid, told Ynet that the gunmen were "gathering intelligence and were not planning to fire rockets (toward Israel).
"They were hit during an IDF strike; eyewitnesses have confirmed this," he said.
Seventeen rockets were fired toward the western Negev region over the weekend, prompting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to
declare that "the Israeli government sees the firing of missiles and attacks from Gaza as a basic violation of our ceasefire understanding and we will not tolerate it."
The prime minister emphasized that Israel will not allow the Palestinians to resume pre-ceasefire tactics, stating: "It's unacceptable that the population in Israel, in particular in the Gaza vicinity communities, will be subjected to a situation of such uncertainty, such as there was several months ago, prior to the ceasefire."
A senior Hamas figure, Dr. Khalil al-Haya, called Friday on members of Hamas' military wing to continue shooting rockets "at the Israeli settlements around Gaza," but another Islamist group leader, Mahmoud al-Zahar, said "if Israel's ceases its attacks we will be able to halt the rocket fire."
Meanwhile, in a rare statement, Hamas' armed wing in the West Bank, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades said it would "respond to Israel's crimes by attacking deep within the Zionist state."
Hanan Greenberg and Reuters contributed to the report
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