Gaza: Israel killed nine Palestinians, including two children, in a missile attack on Tuesday on a van carrying militants and rockets in the Gaza strip, medics and witnesses said.
It was one of the deadliest air strikes in Gaza in years and came amid a surge of Palestinian anger towards Israel, following an explosion caused by Israeli artillery shelling that killed seven people on a beach outing on Friday.
Violence also has intensified between rival gunmen from President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction and the ruling Hamas group. "The (Israeli military) carried out an aerial attack in the northern Gaza strip against a vehicle loaded with rockets and carrying a terror cell en route to launch (them) at Israel," said an army statement issued in Tel Aviv.
Witnesses said they saw rockets in the wreckage of a yellow van that was hit in the attack and that there were at least 10 casualties. Medics said nine people were killed.
Shrapnel from the missile apparently flew into an adjacent house, causing casualties among children playing inside. Local residents said the men in the vehicle belonged to the Islamic Jihad group.
The air strike seemed certain to inflame tensions that have soared since the governing Hamas movement declared an end to a 16-month-old ceasefire with Israel after Friday's deadly blast on a Gaza beach.
More than 100 rockets have been fired at Israel from Gaza in the past four days, the army said.
The Israeli army apologised for the beach incident, whose dead included five members of a family, but stopped short of accepting blame.
The results of an Israeli inquiry into the deaths are expected to be released on Tuesday or Wednesday.
Hamas, an Islamic militant group, accused Israel of being behind the explosion and threatened a resumption of the type of attacks, including suicide bombings, it has spearheaded against Israel since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000.
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