Israelis Whack Four in Gaza

[UPDATE] More photos below.

Car swarm to follow.

Israeli air strike kills 4 militants in Gaza

GAZA, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Israel's air force killed four Palestinian militants in an attack on their car in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday, witnesses and Palestinian security sources said.

They identified the dead as members of Army of Islam, a fringe militant group. Earlier reports had suggested the car belonged to an armed wing of the ruling Islamist Hamas.

Yes, I'm sure they had nothing to do with Hamas.

PressTV says a child has been injured. Get a load of this account.

A Palestinian child has been injured in an Israeli air strike against rocket launchers in the northern Gaza Strip, witnesses said.

The Zionist air force carried out three attacks on Wednesday morning in the north of the Gaza Strip, an army spokesman said.

A spokesman for the Islamic Jihad movement said that several of its members managed to escape the strike.

A rocket fired from Gaza struck Israel on Wednesday without causing casualties or damage.

The al-Quds Brigades, the Islamic Jihad Movement's military wing, fires most of the rockets from Gaza into Israel in response to Israeli incursions into the Gaza Strip and West Bank.

UPDATE: LGFer insanity police tipped me to the above photo, though it's tough to tell from Ynet whether it's an archive shot. Whatever, serves its purpose. They appear to be doing a thorough inspection of the former vehicle.

UPDATE II: More scenes from a car swarm. Lots of car inspections going on there.

Palestinians inspect a destroyed vehicle following an Israeli air strike in Gaza September 26, 2007. Israel killed four Palestinian militants in an air strike in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday and threatened a sweeping military operation in the Hamas-run territory to stem cross-border rocket fire. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem (GAZA)

Now, for a heart-rending and likely staged photo of a wounded Pali.

Palestinians carry a wounded youth during an Israeli army operation in the village of Beit Hanoun, in the northern Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2007. Israeli tanks entered the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, in response to earlier rocket fire from the area by Palestinian militants, the army said. Palestinian hospital officials said four Palestinians were killed and at least 11 wounded by Israeli tank fire in Beit Hanoun.(AP Photo/Hatem Moussa)

Shalit in Hamas Control?

This is rather curious.

Army of Islam says Shalit moved to Hamas control

Army of Islam, one of the militant groups implicated in the abduction last year of Israel Defense Forces Corporal Gilad Shalit, told Channel 10 that it has transferred Shalit to the full control of Hamas.

Until his release Wednesday morning, Army of Islam had also been holding British Broadcasting Corporation reporter Alan Johnston, who had been captive in the Gaza Strip for four months.

In an interview aired Wednesday night, Army of Islam deputy commander Abu Mutha'ana said, "We at Army of Islam made the preparations for operation 'Dissipating Illusion,' which was carried out in cooperation with the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade and the Popular Resistance Committees Salah a-Din. We kidnapped Gilad Shalit and handed him over to Hamas."

Abu Mutha'ana, fully masked and surrounded by weapons in the Channel 10 interview, did not fully explain why the movement handed Shalit over to Hamas. He said simply that Shalit was transferred "because Army of Islam was busy with other things."

None of them good, I'm sure.

After Johnston was released earlier Wednesday, Israel called on Hamas to free Shalit, saying that the militant group is responsible for the delay in the release of Palestinian prisoners as part of a swap for the soldier.

Miri Eisin, a spokeswoman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, called on Hamas to free Shalit immediately. "The Hamas that brought about Alan Johnston's release is the same Hamas that abducted Gilad Shalit," she said.