Tens of thousands of Palestinians march in the funeral of three slain Hamas commanders in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Photo: Reuters
Gaza City: Israel killed three senior Hamas commanders in the Gaza Strip in an air strike on Thursday and said it would continue to target the group's armed leadership after a ceasefire failed.
Hamas, which dominates Gaza, named the men as Mohammed Abu Shammala, Raed al-Attar and Mohammed Barhoum, the three highest-ranking casualties it has announced since Israel started its Operation Protective Edge offensive six weeks ago.
All three, killed in the bombing of a house in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, had led operations against Israel over the past 20 years, the Islamist movement said. Hospital officials said a four-year-old girl injured in the attack later died of her wounds.
An Israeli strike on the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on Thursday, August 21. Photo: AFP
The Israeli military and Shin Bet, the internal security service, confirmed it had targeted two of the men. They were the most senior Hamas men killed since November 2012, when the assassination of military chief Ahmed al-Jaabari triggered an eight-day cross-border war.
Since the collapse on Tuesday of a 10-day ceasefire, the Israeli military has ramped up its efforts to hit the leadership of Hamas's armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.
'We will continue to seek out and target Hamas leaders anywhere, and everywhere - wherever they are,' Israeli Defence Minister Moshe Yaalon said.
Hamas's Gaza-based deputy political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, who has stayed out of the public eye, said in a speech read by a presenter on the group's al-Aqsa TV station that 'the enemy will pay a heavy price' for the assassinations.
'When one leader is martyred, other leaders take the flag and continue the march,' Mr Haniyeh said.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza on July 8 with the declared aim of curbing Palestinian rocket fire into its territory. Gaza health officials say 2066 Palestinians, most of them civilians, have been killed.
Israeli attacks have devastated many areas in the densely-populated enclave, home to 1.8 million people, with 425,000 of people displaced, according to the United Nations.
Sixty-four Israeli soldiers have been killed in the conflict, as well as three civilians in the Jewish state.
Palestinian health officials said 31 Palestinians, including four children, the Hamas commanders and at least two other militants, were killed in Israeli air strikes on Thursday.
The Israeli military said aircraft attacked more than 30 sites across Gaza and that militants fired more than 100 rockets and mortar bombs into Israel. A mortar bomb that landed near a kindergarten in an Israeli kibbutz badly wounding a parent of one of the children, according to the Israeli ambulance service.
Meanwhile senior Hamas leader Saleh Arouri, who founded Hamas' military wing in the Israeli-occupied West Bank two decades ago, has told a conference in Turkey that the group carried out the kidnapping and killing of three Israeli teenagers in June - the first time anyone from Hamas has said it was behind the attack.
'It was an operation by your brothers from the al-Qassam Brigades,' he said, saying Hamas had hoped to exchange the youths for Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.
Hamas has repeatedly praised the kidnappings, but Mr Arouri is the first member to claim responsibility.
The kidnappings on June 12 sparked a broad Israeli crackdown on Hamas members throughout the occupied West Bank. Hamas responded with heavy rocket fire out of the Gaza Strip, leading Israel to launch its aerial and ground invasion of the territory.
Reuters, AP Entities 0 Name: Hamas Count: 15 1 Name: Israeli Count: 9 2 Name: Israel Count: 7 3 Name: Gaza Strip Count: 5 4 Name: Gaza Count: 4 5 Name: Rafah Count: 3 6 Name: West Bank Count: 2 7 Name: Turkey Count: 1 8 Name: Palestinian Count: 1 9 Name: Raed al-Attar Count: 1 10 Name: Reuters Count: 1 11 Name: United Nations Count: 1 12 Name: Mohammed Abu Shammala Count: 1 13 Name: Arouri Count: 1 14 Name: Ahmed al-Jaabari Count: 1 15 Name: Ismail Haniyeh Count: 1 16 Name: Saleh Arouri Count: 1 17 Name: Reuters Gaza City Count: 1 18 Name: Shin Bet Count: 1 19 Name: Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades Count: 1 20 Name: Haniyeh Count: 1 21 Name: Mohammed Barhoum Count: 1 22 Name: Moshe Yaalon Count: 1 23 Name: al-Qassam Brigades Count: 1 Related 0 Url: http://ift.tt/1v1Thqc Title: Hamas buries commanders killed by Israel Description: Funerals have been held for three Hamas commanders killed in the latest round of Israeli air raids in the Gaza Strip that left a total of 29 Palestinians dead. The al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, said Mohamed Abo Shamaleh, Raed al-Attar and Mohamed Barhoum were killed in an attack in Rafah on Thursday, little more than a day after an attempt on the life of its leader Mohammed Deif.