Israeli aircraft struck repeatedly at Palestinian rocket squads in northern Gaza on Wednesday, and in one botched attack killed a 12-year-old boy, his father and uncle, AP reported. Islamic militants, enraged by the deaths of 19 Palestinians a day earlier, barraged southern Israel with rockets and mortar fire. Among the dead Tuesday was the son of Gaza's most powerful Hamas leader, Mahmoud Zahar, and the Islamic group that controls the territory vowed to retaliate for the bloodshed. The Palestinian civilians were killed in an Israeli air attack on a pickup truck east of Gaza City. The Popular Resistance Committees, a small, Hamas-allied faction, said the apparent target was its chief rocket maker, who was driving in the area in a similar vehicle at the time.
