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Palestinian Militants Kill Two Israelis

Posted on: Monday, 28 June 2004, 06:00 CDT

SDEROT, Israel - Palestinian militants fired two home-made rockets from Gaza at an Israeli border town Monday, killing an Israeli man and his 3-year-old grandson near the toddler's nursery school.

It marked the first time in nearly four years of fighting that Israelis were killed by rockets from Gaza, and harsh Israeli retaliation was expected. Seven people were wounded in Monday's attack.

The rocket attack was the latest in a burst of attacks by Palestinian militants. Late Sunday, militants blew up an Israeli army outpost in the heart of Gaza, killing one soldier and wounding five. The attackers had dug a 1,000-feet long tunnel to the outpost, and stuffed it with hundreds of pounds of explosives. The blast collapsed a building, and briefly trapped one soldier.

"The Palestinians, although their means are sometimes rather primitive, are also rather successful," an Israeli army commander in Gaza, Brig. Gen. Shmuel Zakai, told Israel Radio.

At the targeted outpost, Israeli troops had dug tunnels themselves to thwart a Palestinian attack from below. Zakai said the Palestinian attackers had simply dug deeper, "and that is how they got under the outpost."

Two Palestinian groups, Hamas and the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, claimed joint responsibility, saying they were avenging leaders and key activists killed by Israel in recent months.

In the immediate aftermath of the blast, a Palestinian police officer and a 15-year-old boy were killed by Israeli fire from tanks and machine guns. Troops were responding to Palestinian fire at the scene of the explosion.

Early Monday, Israeli helicopters also fired missiles at two suspected weapons workshops in Gaza City, causing some damage, but no serious injury.

Israel also reimposed travel restrictions in Gaza, cutting the strip into three parts and preventing travel between the northern and southern areas.

The burst of violence came as Egypt was trying to broker a cease-fire between Israel and the militants ahead of a planned Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. It seemed unlikely the latest fighting would disrupt a pullback. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has said he's determined to go ahead with a plan he believes is crucial for Israel's security.

However, more violence is expected in the time leading up to the pullout, to be completed by the end of 2005. The militants want to step up attacks so they can portray the withdrawal as a hasty retreat by Israel. The military, in turn, hopes to strike hard at the armed groups to prevent any gloating and weaken their ability to attack Israel after a pullback.

The explosion at the outpost went off shortly before 10 p.m. local time Sunday, at an army outpost at the Gush Katif junction, near Gaza's largest bloc of Israeli settlements. The outpost is protected by reinforced concrete.

Militants said they dug a 1,000-foot tunnel to reach the outpost. In a videotaped claim of responsibility, Al Aqsa said it used 3,300 pounds of explosives.

"This is a message to Sharon that ... our fighters will continue the holy struggle until we uproot them (Israelis) from our land," said an Al Aqsa spokesman, who only gave his name as Abu Mohammed.

Hamas said the explosion came as revenge for Israel's assassination of the group's founder, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, in March, and of his successor, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, a month later.

In Gaza City, about 2,000 people rushed into the streets to celebrate, among them about 100 armed men.

Palestinian militants have used tunnels in the past, once to attack an Israeli outpost in southern Gaza and also to smuggle weapons from Egypt to Gaza.

Earlier Sunday, in the West Bank, militants threatened revenge for seven armed men killed by Israel on Saturday in the city of Nablus. Among the dead was Nayef Abu Sharkh, 45, the West Bank's top fugitive and an Al Aqsa founder.

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