Palestinian killed in Israeli army raid in Gaza

GAZA, Aug 24 (Reuters) Israeli forces killed a Palestinian and detained a senior member of the governing Hamas movement in a raid in southern Gaza early today, witnesses and the army said.

An Israeli army spokesman said Israeli troops clashed with Palestinian gunmen during the raid on a house in the southern Gaza village of Abasan near the town of Khan Younis. Witnesses said an Israeli helicopter fired two missiles.

Israel launched an air and ground offensive in the Gaza Strip in late June after militants, including Hamas gunmen, abducted an Israeli soldier in a cross-border attack.

Family members said the dead man was Youssef Abu Daqqa, the brother of Younis Abu Daqqa, a prominent member of Hamas in southern Gaza who was previously detained. They army did not reveal the identity of the arrested man.

As part of its offensive, Israel has detained dozens of top Hamas officials in the past two months, including cabinet members and lawmakers in the occupied West Bank.

Israel regards Hamas, which is dedicated to its destruction, as a terrorist group. Hamas took power in the Palestinian territories after winning parliamentary elections in January.

In another incident on the border fence between the coastal strip and Israel, a tank fired a shell at two militants, wounding one, who was taken to hospital, witnesses said. The whereabouts of the second was unknown.

The army said the men were crawling along the ground near the border fence and were fired on.

Gaza, home to 1.4 million Palestinians, was occupied by Israeli troops until August last year, when soldiers and some 8,000 Jewish settlers pulled out after 38 years of occupation.

Separately, in the West Bank town of Jenin yesterday night a senior Palestinian militant leader was shot from a car, local residents and medics said.

The group said Hosam Jaradat, the leader of the Islamic Jihad militant group in the town, was shot by an Israeli undercover unit.

Medics said he was taken to hospital and was in critical condition.

The Israeli army declined comment on the incident.

REUTERS BDP PM1133