Israeli troops trade shots with Hamas, missile kills teacher

Israeli forces backed by warplanes exchanged fire with Hamas gunmen in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday, killing a teacher and six militants in escalating violence that is hobbling peace efforts.

The 38-year-old teacher died and two other staffers were hurt when an Israeli surface-to-surface missile struck an agricultural school in the northern town of Beit Hanoun, Hamas security forces said. Moaiya Hassanain of the Gaza Health Ministry said the man was killed outside of the school gate.

The Israeli military, which frequently operates in Beit Hanoun against Palestinian rocket squads, said it opened fire in the area at a group of rocket launchers.

"We definitely did not fire at a school," a military spokeswoman said, adding that the military was looking into the report.

The fighting erupted earlier in the day after Israeli tanks drove several hundred meters into northern Gaza. Hamas militants and Israel troops traded automatic fire, as Israeli aircraft fired missiles and Hamas lobbed mortar shells.

Five Hamas men were killed, three by missiles and two by gunfire, said Abu Obeida, a spokesman for Hamas' military wing. Two were field commanders, he said. The Islamic Jihad faction said one of its militants also died in the clash.

Palestinian confirmed that six bodies were removed from the area.

The military reported that seven rockets were fired at southern Israel yesterday morning, including one that landed in the yard of a home in the rocket-scarred town of Sderot, slightly injuring one person. Hamas said it fired 40 rockets and 60 mortars at southern Israel since a deadly Israeli airstrike on a Hamas outpost on Tuesday afternoon. The military said some 70 rockets and mortars had been fired.

The operation, which ended by late morning, was the latest in escalating Israel-Hamas violence. In recent days, Hamas carried out a suicide attack in Israel, killing an elderly Israeli woman, and stepped up its rocket barrages on border towns. Israel has intensified airstrikes, including the one that killed seven Hamas policemen.

On Wednesday, a Hamas rocket hit Kibbutz Beeri, an Israeli commune about 6km from the border fence, injured two sisters, ages 12 and two, as they played in their yard, police said. They were not seriously hurt.

After nightfall on Wednesday, Israeli aircraft hit a metal workshop in central Gaza, Hamas said. No one was hurt.