Three Israeli Soldiers Killed in Gaza

Three members of the Jihad movement, Abul Rish Brigades and Popular resistance committee broke into the Israeli Morag settlement in southern Gaza and opened fire at the Israeli soldiers, killing three soldiers and injuring two others, one seriously, Israeli sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The three Palestinian fighters were also killed in the attack.

Thursday’s attack came less than 24 hours when two Israeli policemen were killed and 16 others injured in occupied Jerusalem.

The attack, claimed by Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, occurred when a Palestinian female teenager, Zainab Abu Salem, 19, from the Askar refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus blew herself up in a busy Jerusalem bus station in retaliation for the daily Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people.

An unnamed group member in Nablus said that Zainab volunteered for a bomb attack, saying she wanted to avenge Palestinian resistance activists killed recently in Nablus, according The Associated Press.

“She said that if we refused, she would attack an army post with a knife.”

"So we organized quickly. We set up the attack within 17 hours and we chose this site in Jerusalem because we know it," he added.

The Israeli army, for its part, said the Palestinian operation in occupied Jerusalem, which came two days before the holiest day in the Jewish calendar, the fast of Yom Kippur, had prevented a big Palestinian attack against the Israelis.

“The operation of border police officers today in Jerusalem… prevented a very big attack,” Jerusalem police chief Ilan Franco told reporters at the scene of the attack.