GAZA, Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Violence in Gaza claimed the lives of three Palestinians, as three Fatah militants escaped assassination in an Israeli raid that targeted their car.
The violence sweeping the strip which was evacuated by Israel last September, aggravated discontent over rampant chaos and disorder as Hamas is trying to form a coalition government.
Palestinian medics said two Palestinians were killed and a third injured Friday in Israeli bombardment of a residential area east of the city of Deir al-Balah in central Gaza, in apparent retaliation to the firing of rockets at Israel by Palestinian militants.
Witnesses said the bombardment with heavy artillery also caused damage to several houses in Abu al-Ajeen.
In another development, three militants from Fatah's al-Aqsa Brigades, escaped unharmed from an Israeli air raid that targeted their car in the town of Beit Lahya in north Gaza.
A statement by Fatah's military wing said four passersby, including a four-year-old child, were injured in the raid.
The militants were not identified "for security reasons," the statement said, vowing to continue firing rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Palestinian militants in Gaza and the West Bank.
Earlier statements by al-Aqsa Brigades said the militants fired dozens of rockets at targets in south Israel in response to the assassination late Thursday of five members of the group in the West Bank city of Nablus.
Also Friday, a senior member of al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing, was killed and another suffered grave injuries in a mysterious explosion in Zeitoun neighborhood, east of Gaza city.
Local sources said the blast might have been caused by a technical problem in one of Hamas's military training camps.
