An Israeli missile struck a house in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing theree Palestinian activists, Palestinian sources said. According to reports, the air strike targeted the home of a member of the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, the military wing of the ruling Fatah movement.
This came shortly after an Israeli soldier was stabbed to death Thursday afternoon by a Palestinian, Israel Army reported. The incident took place at the Kalandia checkpoint at the entrance of the West Bank city of Ramallah. The stabbing was carried out by a Palestinian, who was detained by Israeli troops deployed at the checkpoint.
Elsewhere, Israeli artillery units resumed targeting areas in the northern Gaza Strip early on Thursday afternoon. Before dawn on Thursday, an Israeli warplane fired a missile at a target in the northern Gaza Strip that fell in an open area and caused no casualties, witnesses said.
The Israeli army said its aircraft had attacked an access road to sites from which rockets had been launched in a bid to prevent further shooting from the area, Haaretz reported.
The strike came amid heavy shooting from both sides, as Palestinians responded to an Israeli assassination of a leading activist on Wednesday. A total of three rockets and one mortar shell landed in Israel from Gaza Strip.
Meanwhile, Israel decided to freeze talks with the Palestinian Authority on the proposed safe passage convoy linking the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, Israeli sources said.
The sources affirmed on Thursday that the security-political cabinet decided to suspend operating bus convoys between the two area, despite an agreement made last month in talks brokered by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
