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Israeli Gaza air strike kills militant leader | |
(40 minutes later) | |
A senior Palestinian militant leader has been killed in an Israeli air strike in Gaza, Israeli and Palestinian sources say. | |
Zohair al-Qaisi, secretary general of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), was targeted because he was planning an attack, the Israelis said. | |
Another militant was also killed. | |
He had recently been released under a prisoner exchange deal with Hamas that led to the release of the captured soldier Gilad Shalit in October. | |
Medical sources say a third man was seriously injured in the attack, near Gaza City. | |
Witnesses say Israeli drones were heard in the area shortly before the car burst into flames, Associated Press reports. | |
The strike came a few hours after two mortar shells fired from Gaza landed in Israel without causing injury. | |
An Israeli military spokesman said Mr Qaisi was behind a series of gun and bomb attacks near Israel's border with Egypt last year, in which eight Israelis were killed. | |
Ten of the attackers and five Egyptian soldiers also died. | |
The PRC is a coalition of armed factions in Gaza that is loyal to Hamas but sometimes operates separately. It has carried out rocket and mortar attacks against Israel. | The PRC is a coalition of armed factions in Gaza that is loyal to Hamas but sometimes operates separately. It has carried out rocket and mortar attacks against Israel. |
The former head of the PRC, Kamal al-Nairab, and its military chief were killed in a similar Israeli attack last year. | The former head of the PRC, Kamal al-Nairab, and its military chief were killed in a similar Israeli attack last year. |