2011-08-19 15:31

A Palestinian man sits on rubbles of a destroyed house after an Israeli air strike in Gaza August 19, 2011. [Photo/Agencies]

GAZA - Eight Israelis were killed in a series of gunman assults on a desert road north of Israel's Red Sea resort Eilat Thursday, triggering rounds of Israeli air strikes which killed a number of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip Thursday and early Friday.

A 13-year-old boy was killed and 17 of his relatives were wounded as Israeli aircraft hit a Hamas site adjacent to the boy's house in northwest Gaza.

In earlier airstrikes, six Palestinians were killed, including members of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), an armed faction that often operates independently of Hamas.

The PRC denied it was involved in the attacks in southern Israel and confirmed its commander Kamal al-Nairab, deputy head Immad Hammad, and three other members were killed by Israel's airstrikes.

"The Zionist enemy committed a grave mistake by assassinating our leaders and they will pay a heavy price for it," PRC spokesman Abu Mujahed said.

After dark, it launched a rocket across the border which Israel said was shot down by its air defense system.

The Israeli military said the PRC militants were behind the border assaults, adding that they infiltrated into Eilat from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip via Egypt's Sinai desert, which also borders Gaza.

"If anyone thinks the State of Israel will resign itself to this, they are wrong," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a television address on the gunman attack.

"I set a principle: When someone harms the citizens of Israel, we react immediately and with force," the prime minister said.

Israel also accused the new Egyptian government of losing control over its borders.

"This is a very serious terror incident at a number of locations. The incident reflects the weakness of the Egyptian hold on Sinai and the expansion of activity there by terror elements," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday.

An Egyptian military official said an Egyptian border guard and two security men were killed while the Israeli soldiers were chasing militants along the border.

According to Israel's military, the PRC killed six civilians and two soldiers in their triple attacks on two buses, a car and an army vehicle. Another 25 people were wounded, it said.

In the first incident, militants armed with assault rifles ambushed a bus traveling on the Arava Highway, some 30 km from Eilat. Ten people sustained light to moderate injuries and were evacuated to Eilat's Yoseftal Medical Center, according to local reports.

A local counter-terrorism unit was dispatched to the scene and has reportedly killed two militants during a firefight.

In a separate incident involving Israeli armed forces patrolling the nearby border fence with Egypt, gunmen targeted Israeli military vehicles with roadside bombs and mortar fire.

Some five civilians were reportedly in critical condition when their vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade in a separate incident near Eilat, Israel Radio reported.

Earlier, the Islamic Hamas movement denied its involvment in the attacks in Eilat, but vowed to respond if Israel launched retaliatory strikes in Gaza.

"Our attacks start from occupied land and strike in the occupied land," Hamas said in a statement, refuting Israeli reports that the attackers reached Eilat through Sinai.

Also on Thursday, Hamas' Foreign Ministry rejected the Israeli defense minister's statements that the attacks were plotted in Gaza, saying his statements "are meant to justify an Israeli aggression against Gaza."

The Gaza Strip is controlled by the Islamic Hamas movement, which said last week that it will tighten security along the Gaza-Egypt border to restrict illegal movement through underground smuggling tunnels.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement Thursday that the attacks in Eilat were "brutal and cowardly" and "appear to be premeditated acts of terrorism against innocent civilians."

"This violence only underscores our strong concerns about the security situation in the Sinai Peninsula," she said. "Recent commitments by the Egyptian government to address the security situation in the Sinai are important and we urge the Egyptian government to find a lasting resolution."