Adham Abu Selmia, a Health Ministry official for the Hamas-run emergency services, told reporters that ambulances brought the bodies of three Palestinian fishermen who were killed overnight by Israeli fire near Beit Lahiya refugee camp while they working with their nets on the shore.
He identified the three as Jihad Khalaf, 20, Talaat Al-Rawagh, 25, and Ashraf Al-Qetifan, 29. Abu Selmia added that the three men died after being hit by a tank shell and machine gunfire in Al-Waha village.
Initial reports said the Israeli army backed by combat helicopters shot the three while they were digging for gravel. Later, medics and relatives who came to the hospital to receive the bodies for burial confirmed they were fishermen.
A spokesman for the armed wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine — a small group that only rarely carries out attacks — sent a text message to reporters claiming one of the men as a member of the group and said he had been killed “during a mission carried out by our military wing.” The message from the spokesman, Abu Khaled, did not claim the other two men as members.
The Israeli military released a statement saying soldiers fired on the men after they were spotted planting an explosive device in a no-go zone along the border between 2 a.m. and 3 a.m.
Israel has allocated a 300-meter-wide buffer zone along its borders with the northern and eastern Gaza Strip, saying it aims to distance Palestinian militants from its troops and watchtowers. Several Palestinians were killed and wounded in areas close to the borderline.
Separately, two gravel workers were also wounded on Thursday when the Israeli troops opened fire at them. Also Thursday, a group of Palestinians in Gaza sent plaques to the families of Egyptian protesters killed in the unrest that forced Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak from power last week.
The organizer of the campaign, Eyad Barhoum, said the plaques were a “message of honor and recognition” for the protesters, as well as a gesture of thanks to Egyptians for helping to smuggle goods into Gaza despite a border blockade by the Egyptian and Israelis governments.
