Israel launches air strike on central Gaza, killing three Palestinians

An Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip killed three Palestinians and wounded a fourth late Wednesday, said a spokesman for the territory’s health ministry.

The strike was east of the Bureij refugee camp site in central Gaza, an Al Arabiya correspondent reported.

Palestinian medical officials and witnesses did not immediately give the dead men’s factional affiliation but said they did not belong to Hamas, according to AFP news agency.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said however that the strike targeted a “group of terrorists,” while a military statement said Hamas was “solely responsible” for terrorist activity in the Hamas-governed Gaza.

“The Israeli army targeted a group of terrorists who were preparing to fire rockets at Israel from the center of the Gaza Strip,” she told AFP news agency.

“The Hamas terror organization is solely responsible for any terrorist activity emanating from the Gaza Strip,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

Though hostile to Israel, Islamist Hamas has at times proposed long-term truces and faced resistance to its rule from smaller armed groups in Gaza.

Israel’s long-standing policy has been to blame Hamas, against which it fought a war in 2008-2009, for all attacks.