Hamas: Gaza bombmaker killed in work-related blast

[Behind the Aegis]

Hamas said overnight Monday that a Hamas militant was killed and three others injured in an explosion in a northern Gaza Strip bomb workshop, Army Radio reported.

Hamas initially claimed that the casualties were the result of an Israel Defense Forces attack.

Late Monday night, Palestinian sources claimed that three Hamas men had been killed by another IAF missile strike in the northern Gaza Strip. The army denied the report.

Relative quiet prevailed along the Israel-Gaza border Monday, following Sunday's killing of three Palestinians by an air force strike as they were about to launch rockets at Israel. One Qassam rocket landed in the western Negev, but caused no damage or casualties.

Also Sunday, four mortar shells were fired from the Gaza Strip, but all landed on the Palestinian side of the border.

The three men killed on Sunday were former members of Islamic Jihad who had broken away to join another, smaller, even more extremist faction. That may explain the muted reaction to their deaths in Gaza.

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