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| Gaza city: Israeli air strike kills Palestinian militant | |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| A Palestinian militant has been killed in an Israeli air strike on Gaza City. | |
| Officials from Hamas, which governs the Gaza Strip, said the victim was Haytham al-Misshal, a member of a Salafist jihadist group. | |
| Israel said Misshal had been "a central anchor of terror" in Gaza and was involved in a recent rocket attack on the southern Israeli city of Eilat. | |
| It is the first deadly air strike on Gaza since a ceasefire between Israel and militants there in November. | |
| The incident comes after a rise in violence across the Israeli-Gaza border in recent days. Militants have fired several rockets across the border into Israel and Israel has carried out air strikes, with neither causing injuries. | |
| Two weeks ago, two rockets fired from the Egyptian Sinai by Gaza-based militants hit Eilat, a popular tourist destination on Israel's Red Sea coast. | |
| In a statement, the Israel Defence Forces said Misshal was a weapons expert who made rockets and bombs for different militant groups. | |
| It said Misshal was involved in "extensive terror activity against Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers", including the attack on Eilat. | |
| Israel and militants in Gaza fought an eight-day war in November, which ended with both sides agreeing to desist from air strikes and rocket attacks. The truce has largely upheld since then, despite several incidents of cross-border fire. |