Palestinians taking an injured person to a safer place during the clashes with Israeli soldiers — Internet GAZA CITY, Palestinian Territories, Nov 12 (Agencies): A clash that erupted during an Israeli special forces operation in the Gaza Strip and killed eight people threatened on Monday to derail efforts to restore calm to the Palestinian enclave after months of unrest.
The dead from the incident late Sunday included an Israeli army officer and a local commander for Hamas's armed wing.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cut short a trip to Paris and rushed home as tensions rose.
Sirens rang out in southern Israel into the early hours of Monday after the clash, signalling rocket fire from the Gaza Strip.
Israel said it identified 17 launches toward its territory, three of which were intercepted by missile defences. It was not immediately clear where the others landed, but there were no injuries.
While the clash threatened to upset weeks of efforts to end unrest along the Gaza-Israel border, calm returned on Monday and Israel stressed its operation was an intelligence-gathering mission and "not an assassination or abduction."
The statement from Israeli military spokesman Ronen Manelis signalled that the mission did not go as planned and resulted in the clash, which Palestinian security sources said included Israeli air strikes.
An Israeli ground operation to kill or abduct militants inside the Gaza Strip would be rare.
Hamas, the Islamist movement that runs the blockaded enclave, and its armed wing, spoke of a "cowardly Israeli attack" and an "assassination", vowing revenge.
Hamas's armed wing said an Israeli special forces team had infiltrated near Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip in a civilian car. Israeli air strikes followed when the operation failed, it said in a statement.
Israel's military had not confirmed those details.
Gaza's health ministry said seven Palestinians were killed.
Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rushed back to Israel on Monday, hours after an Israeli army officer and seven Palestinians, including a local Hamas commander, were killed after an incursion by Israeli special forces into the Gaza Strip.
The Islamic militant Hamas, which rules Gaza, said Israeli undercover forces entered the territory in a civilian vehicle late Sunday and exchanged fire with Hamas gunmen.
The clashes prompted Israeli airstrikes and a salvo of rocket fire from Gaza toward Israel. An Israeli lieutenant colonel and several Hamas fighters were among those killed.
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