( RIA Novosti ) - At least seven Palestinian militants have been killed in Israeli air attacks in eastern Gaza and in the center of the Palestinian enclave, home to 1.5 million, local doctors said.
Four militants from the Islamist movement Hamas, which has controlled the Gaza Strip since June, and another three gunmen from people's resistance committees and the Palestinian president's Fatah movement were killed when suppressing an incursion of Israeli army units on the night of January 1.
An Israeli army spokesman told the TV that the operation in eastern Gaza was launched after Palestinians fired several anti-tank rockets against Israeli troops.
A Hamas gunman was killed and another five were wounded earlier in a fire attack in central Gaza.