IAF Whacks Six Palis

First they put the fire out.


Then comes the car swarm. Those Reuters photographers are always on the spot.

6 Palestinians dead in 2 IAF strikes

Six Palestinians were killed Saturday evening in two separate airstrikes in the Gaza Strip. At around 8:30 pm, an Israel Air Force fired a missile which killed three members of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. One of the casualties was identified as Salah Kopah, a senior group member in the Strip.

The Palestinians reported that the three casualties were members of the Shahid Ayman Jouda cells, which took part in a terror attack carried out recently by the Islamic Jihad in Kissufim. The three were hit near a welding workshop, where they were apparently manufacturing ammunition.

Earlier, three members of the al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad's military wing, were killed as an IAF aircraft fired at least one missile at a car in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis. The airstrike took place at around 5:30 pm.

A spokesman for the al-Quds Brigades told Ynet that all three casualties were members of the organization, contradicting the Palestinians' initial report, according to which the three were members of the Salah al-Din Brigades, the Popular Resistance Committees military wing.

Among the casualties were Muhammad al-Raei, a prominent member of the organization who fired an RPG missile at an IDF armored personnel carrier at the Philadelphi route on May 2004. An IDF officer and four troops were killed in the incident.