The Israeli army killed at least six Palestinian militants in Gaza and one in the occupied West Bank on Wednesday, including Hamas men who Gaza residents said had returned recently from training in Syria or Iran.
Five of the militants, senior members of Hamas movement that controls the Gaza Strip, were killed when the van in which they were travelling was attacked from the air near the southern town of Khan Younis, medical officials said.
Local residents who knew the men said some of them had undergone training in Syria or Iran and returned home after Hamas breached the Gaza Strip's border with Egypt in defiance of an Israeli blockade of the territory of 1.5 million people.
In the West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli undercover forces killed one militant and wounded and detained four others, a Palestinian official said. The Israeli army gave no immediate details about what it described as a routine operation. An Israeli army spokeswoman said the air strike was a joint operation by the military and the Shin Bet intelligence service.