"Israeli" troops martyr 4 Palestinians

Source: alalam.ir, 3-12-2007
GAZA CITY-Three Palestinian fighters were martyred in a clash with "Israeli" troops
Monday in the northern Gaza Strip, medical officials and Hamas said.
An official in the military wing of Hamas said three of its fighters were martyred in an exchange of fire with occupying troops at Beit Lahya.
The three members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades were named as Islam Abed Rabbo, 23, Aziz Fahri, 22, and Mohammed Abu Mehdi, 23.
An "Israeli" military spokeswoman confirmed the incident.
She said troops fired at a group of fighters who had approached the "Israeli" fence allegedly in an attempt to launch mortar shells into Occupied Palestine.
The "Israeli" army frequently carries out attacks against Palestinians in the coastal territory as part of what it says attempts to stop them from firing rockets at "Israeli" targets.
On Sunday, "Israeli" artillery fire martyred one Palestinian and wounded five others in the Gaza Strip hours after three occupying soldiers were injured by a mortar.
Bassam al-Helou, a member of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, was martyred when "Israeli" forces opened fire on an area on the edge of Gaza city, the Islamic movement said in a statement.
According to Hamas, five other members of the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades were injured by the artillery rounds.
The occupying military confirmed that it had fired on suspected fighters.
Earlier on Sunday, a mortar round fired from the Gaza Strip hurt three "Israeli" soldiers, the military said.
"Three soldiers were lightly wounded in the sector of Kibbutz Nahal Oz by a mortar round fired from the Gaza Strip," a spokeswoman said.
Public radio said southern Occupied Palestine came under repeated salvos of mortar fire from Gaza during the day.
The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades said they fired 34 mortar rounds.
Hamas` military wing also said it hit and damaged Sunday a Zionist patrol boat off the coast of Gaza with a rocket-propelled grenade, but the "Israeli" military said it could not confirm the attack.
War minister Ehud Barak said he had authorized the army to target militant structures across the Gaza Strip as "Israel" mulled a broad military incursion into the territory.
Before Hamas announced the latest death, 18 Palestinians had been martyred in "Israeli" air and ground operations across Gaza over the past week, marking a sharp escalation in the violence.
Palestinians carry the body of Hamas fighter Zeyad Abu Anzai during his funeral in the southern Gaza Strip.