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Israel strikes back after rockets

Israeli military aircraft fired missiles Saturday at two cars in the northern Gaza Strip, killing two Palestinians and wounding nine others, hours after a barrage of 32 rockets was fired from Gaza into Israel. The Palestinians who died were members of the radical terrorist group Hamas, according to leaders of the group in Gaza.

The airstrike marked the first fatal Israeli military operation in Gaza since Israel completed its withdrawal from the strip earlier this month, and brought with it the threat of an escalating clash as Israeli tanks, artillery batteries and infantry units gathered along Gaza`s northern border throughout the day.

Hamas asserted responsibility later in the day for the pre-dawn rocket attack. Leaders of the group, known formally as the Islamic Resistance Movement, said the rocket attack, which wounded five Israelis, was a response to a massive explosion at a Hamas rally in the Jabalya refugee camp Friday that killed at least 17 Palestinians. Both the Palestinian Authority and Israeli government pointed the finger at Hamas itself in the wake of that explosion.