Hamas fighters killed in Gaza Strip

Date published: 2nd September 2009

Source: Al Jazeera English

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Two members of the armed wing of the Palestinian faction Hamas have been killed by the Israeli army, medical sources have said. Moawiya Hassanein, the head of Gaza’s emergency services, said on Tuesday “the two men were killed near Jabaliya by shells” fired from the Israeli side of the border. The men were believed to be involved in planting land mines on the Palestinian side of the border. One member was also injured. The dead Palestinians – identified as Faraj Najjar, 29, and  Ismat Moharra, 25 – were members of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the military branch of Hamas. The Israeli army denied in a statement any shooting in the area. An Israeli military spokeswoman said: “There was no attack by the Israel Defence Forces in the Gaza Strip.” Israel and Hamas have mostly observed a ceasefire that ended their December-January war in Gaza. Israel bombed Gaza, saying it wanted to cripple Hamas’s ability to launch rockets into the south of Israel, but the rockects are still fired from time to time. The killing of the Palestinians comes as Egypt and Germany try to broker the release of an Israeli soldier held by Hamas, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israel’s jails. Gilad Shalit was captured by Hamas during a border raid in 2006.