02 April 2011 | Ma’an News Agency
Gaza medical services spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya said the deceased were transferred to the Al-Aqsa Hospital in Khan Younis, adding that their bodies were charred from the intensity of the strike.
The three were identified as Isma’il Labad, 31, and his brother Abdullah, 24, from Ash-Shati refugee camp in the northern Gaza Strip, and Muhammad Ad-Dayah, 31, from the Zaytoun neighborhood of Gaza City.
A fourth man was seriously wounded in the attack and taken to the same hospital, Abu Salmiya said.
Witnesses said Israeli drones fired a missile at a white Toyota traveling on Salah Ad-Din road between Khan Younis and Deir Al-Baleh. They said the car was totally destroyed, and that the explosion shook the city of Khan Younis.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said the Israeli air force and army carried out a joint operation in the Khan Younis area targeting Hamas fighters. Forces confirmed a hit, she said.
The spokeswoman said the group was planning to carry out kidnapping attacks in Israel and in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula during the Jewish holiday of Passover in late April.
On Wednesday, Israeli forces killed one militant and injured a second in an airstrike shortly after the dawn prayer near Rafah in southern Gaza.
Two Palestinian fighters were killed on Sunday when Israeli war planes struck Jabaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza.