By Mohamed Majed
GAZA CITY, Palestine (AA): Four Palestinians were killed in a suspected Israeli artillery shelling in the Gaza Strip on Saturday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry.
In a statement, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qidra said the four were killed east of Rafah city in the southern Gaza Strip.
“Medical teams are still searching the area,” he said.
Local Palestinian media said Israeli forces fired tank shells at a position of Palestinian group Hamas east of Rafah, killing four people.
The four were identified as Amjad Qartous, 18, Ayed Hamaydeh, 23, Hesham Kallab, 18, and Hesham Abdul-Al, 22. All four were from from the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.
Islamic Jihad claimed the four young men as fighters in their armed wing, and published a photo of the four wearing the uniform of Islamic Jihad.
Initial reports from the PNN stated that Israeli artillery shelled the eastern border of Rafah, targeting a group of young men who were moving rubber tires near the eastern border of the city.
But a later report indicted that the four men may have been killed by an explosive that went off in a training accident.
The Israeli army, for its part, denied its forces had carried out any attacks in the Gaza Strip.
The military said a fire broke out near a security fence in the southern Gaza border and it was checking its cause, according to Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth.
Additional report by imemc.org
[Photo: An injured demonstrator is being carried away after Israeli security forces’ intervention in a demonstration demanding the right of return and removal of the blockade following the “Great March of Return” event in Ez-Zeitoun town south of Gaza City, Gaza on March 31, 2018. Photographer: Ali Jadallah/AA]