Members of the Islamic fundamentalist Hamas movement killed one Israeli and wounded six others over the weekend in retaliation for a shootout with Israeli police that resulted in the death of two Hamas terrorists and the capture of five others.
Early Sunday morning, Hamas terrorists fired at a Coca Cola delivery van and a private car on the Kissufim-Gush Katif road in the south of Gaza.
The driver of the car was lightly wounded and his wife, seven months pregnant, went into shock. Two men in the delivery truck were injured by glass splinters.
Eight hours later at the same spot on the road, an Israeli was killed and two others wounded when their car was fired upon from a passing car.
Israeli security sources said that after each incident, the gunmen fled to a part of Gaza controlled by Palestinian police and that Israel had filed a complaint demanding their arrest.
Hamas said in a statement that Sunday’s attacks were in revenge for the killing of two of its members by Israeli police in Jerusalem last Friday.
In an operation that began last Friday and lasted into Saturday, Israeli security forces chased and captured members of a Hamas terrorist cell operating in the Jerusalem area that was regarded by the secret service as one of the most dangerous and most sought after of all groups operated by Hamas.
Three Israeli police were wounded during a series of chases and shootouts. Two Hamas members were killed, another two were wounded and captured, and a fifth terrorist was also taken into custody.
Two other Hamas terrorists who did not take part in the shootouts, one of whom was reportedly the leader of the terror cell, were also arrested in eastern Jerusalem. A sixth man was wounded in the leg but managed to get away.
During interrogation, the captured terrorists indicated they were on their way to attack police guarding the home of Knesset member Ariel Sharon in the Muslim Quarter of the Old City.
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