Palestinian militants from Gaza kill 2 Israelis

updated 4:37 p.m. ET April 9, 2008

NAHAL OZ, Israel - Militants from the Gaza Strip slipped across the border and opened fire at a fuel depot in southern Israel on Wednesday, killing two Israeli civilians in a brazen daylight raid that threatened to set off heavy combat after a monthlong lull.

The Israeli government held Gaza's Hamas rulers responsible for the attack and sent tanks, troops and aircraft into the Palestinian territory. At least nine Palestinians died during the day, including two at the depot and seven in Gaza.

Earlier in the day, a Hamas militant and an Israeli soldier also were killed in clashes in southern Gaza.

The surge in violence could jeopardize recently renewed peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian government based in the West Bank, and the raid on the depot posed a threat to the supply of fuel to Gaza.

The facility is the sole conduit of gasoline to the coastal territory. Officials said there was no serious damage despite plumes of smoke billowing from the site, but Israel already has reduced the flow of fuel to Gaza as part of its sanctions against Hamas, causing severe shortages and rationing.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said the attack would only cause more harm to Gazan civilians by threatening the current flow of fuel and other humanitarian supplies to Gaza.

"Israel sends food, gas, medical supplies and humanitarian assistance every day and the terrorists who attacked the crossing today are trying to harm this operation and are harming mostly the well-being of the people," Mekel said.

Gunmen cross the line
Israeli officials said four gunmen climbed over a border fence while their comrades fired mortar shells into Israel to divert attention. The attackers entered the depot and riddled two workers with bullets.

Maj. Tal Levram, an Israeli army spokesman, said soldiers arrived within minutes and killed two of the militants, but the other two escaped. He said the raiders apparently also planned to attack a neighboring Israeli village or to kidnap soldiers, but were thwarted by the army.

"It could have been much, much worse," he said.

Residents of nearby Israeli border communities stayed hunkered down in their homes even after the attackers fled. There were sporadic mortar attacks into the evening. One shell heavily damaged an Israeli home and another landed about 100 yards from journalists. The army said one soldier was wounded in the hand by Palestinian sniper fire.

"The army told us not to leave our homes, not to get out of the house," said Moran Freibach, 37, a resident of Kibbutz Nahal Oz, a farming community next to the fuel depot.

Israelis target militants
Israeli airstrikes targeted militants in Gaza late into the night.

Islamic Jihad, an armed extremist group backed by Iran, and two smaller militant groups claimed responsibility for the raid. Islamic Jihad spokesman Abu Ahmad called it a "unique and complicated operation."

Palestinian militants frequently attack Israeli targets along the border, but they rarely succeed in getting across the wall.

In December, two militants were gunned down by Israeli soldiers after crossing over and attacking an army base. In the most serious attack, militants tunneled into Israel in June 2006, killed two soldiers and captured a third. The soldier, Cpl. Gilad Schalit, remains in captivity in Gaza.

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