Israel retaliates for Palestinian war crimes near Eilat

BBC:

The Israeli military has carried out air strikes over the Gaza Strip, targeting those it blamed for a series of deadly attacks in southern Israel.

At least six people, including a senior militant, were killed in the air strikes, Palestinian sources said.

Earlier, Israeli officials promised a strong response after attacks on vehicles near Eilat left seven dead.

Israeli officials said Gazan militants were responsible, although Gaza's Hamas government denied involvement.

The Israeli air strike hit a house in the town of Rafah.

Palestinian sources told the BBC that four members of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), a faction in Gaza that is loyal to Hamas but sometimes operates separately, had been killed in the air strikes, including the group's head, Kamal al-Nairab.

PRC military chief Immad Hammad and the son of the owner of the house were also among those killed, Palestinian sources and residents said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said those killed were responsible for the attacks earlier in the day near Eilat.

"The people who gave the order to murder our people and hid in Gaza are no longer among the living," he said in a televised address.

"If anyone thinks the state of Israel will resign itself to this, they are wrong."

...

Some of those who died in the Gaza strike were responsible for kidnapping an Israeli soldier in 2006. While the group is affiliated with Hamas, it is apparently not under its direct control. It further highlights the fact that the Palestinians have nothing of value to offer Israel in any deal because they cannot or will not control such groups assuming they wanted to in the first place.