According to Palestinian medics, two Hamas fighters were killed and three others were severely wounded in an Israeli air strike conducted in the northern part of the Gaza Strip.

The killings were unprecedented since the Islamic movement violated a 16-month truce with Israel on Friday when it resumed firing rockets and bombs towards Israel from Gaza. Hamas spokespeople stated that the attack was considered to be a reply to Israeli shelling on a beach in Gaza which resulted in the death of seven Palestinians.

According to Israeli officials, the air strike on a field in Bait Lahiya in the Jabalya refugee camp on Sunday was started off by Hamas which broke the provisions of the truce.

One of the Palestinians who died in the aftermath of the attack was said to have been Salem al-Arabiya, the local commander of the Hamas armed wing, Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades.

Although the official story goes that Hamas has not launched any attacks in Israel since the 2005 truce, Israeli officials declared that the Islamic resistance movement has helped other armed factions deliver massive rocket attacks from Gaza, instead. As an example, military representatives stated that an Israeli man from the southern town of Sderot was seriously injured when a rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Gaza Strip, exploded near him.

A second rocket exploded in Ashkelon port city but did not cause any victims.