Israel Strike Kills 2 in Gaza after Call for Calm by Palestinian Militants
An Israeli air strike killed two people in the Gaza Strip on Sunday, medics said, a day after Palestinian militants said they were committed to calming tensions if Israel reciprocated.
"Two Palestinians were killed and another wounded Sunday morning in an Israeli air raid on targets east of Jabaliya," said Adham Abu Senmya, spokesman for the Gaza emergency services.
On Saturday, after a week of bloody clashes with Israel that killed eight Palestinians, militants led by the Hamas rulers of Gaza met and declared they wanted to restore calm in the coastal enclave.
Hamas official Ismail Radwan told reporters after a two-hour meeting with Islamic Jihad and other factions that "we are committed to calm as long as the occupation (Israel) commits to it."
Following Saturday's meeting in Gaza City, Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader, told Agence France Presse that "everybody confirmed that they respect the national consensus by calming things with the Zionist enemy."
But he said this "depends on the nature of Israeli behavior, and we insist on the need to respond immediately to each escalation by the occupiers."
And Osama al-Haj Ahmed, a Popular Front leader, said "the factions confirmed their commitment to national consensus in order not to give the aggressors any pretext" for attacking.
On Wednesday, Hamas had already pledged to restore calm in the coastal enclave.
Spokesman Taher al-Nunu said "we will work to restore the field conditions that were prevalent over the last few weeks."
He was referring to a de facto truce that was broken on March 16, when an Israeli air strike killed two Hamas militants in Gaza.
Just before the Gaza meeting started, the Israeli army said, a rocket was fired from Gaza on the Israel town of Sderot, causing no casualties or damage.
And Gaza militants fired two rockets into Israel on Friday night, with one damaging a house where Israeli media said eight sleeping people were unharmed.
Source: Agence France Presse
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