Gaza/Tel Aviv - Israeli air and ground strikes killed four Palestinians including three civilians and left a fifth clinically dead, Sunday, as militants fired six Qassam missiles at Western Israel, causing an electricity outage in the town of od Sderot, adjacent to the salient. The three civilians were killed in Beit Hanoun when an Israeli helicopter fired a rocket at a guard outpost in a factory in the northern Gaza Strip town, killing the 40-year-old guard, his 18-year- old son and a third youth.
An Israeli military spokesman said the strike had targeted the group which had fired the makeshift Qassam rockets at Israel.
About an hour later, witnesses said a ground-to-ground missile hit an Islamic Jihad cadre that was launching rockets from the eastern part of Jebaliya refugee camp, also in the north of the salient.
At least six other people were injured in the strike.
A second Israeli airstrike also targeted rocket launchers in the area.
The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for launching the three rockets in the early morning. None of the rockets caused any damage or casualties.
A second rocket barrage was fired shortly before noon. One of the missiles landed in the backyard of the home of a pensioner suffering from cancer. She was unhurt, but suffered from shock.
Parts of the Sderot - some 300 homes - were left without electricity as a result of another rocket which hit the town of 20,000 people.
