Gaza Rockets Hit Israel in 4th Day of Violence

Posted August 21st, 2011 at 9:55 am (UTC-5)
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Palestinian militants fired at least 17 more rockets into Israel Sunday and the Israeli military launched an air strike in the Gaza Strip during the region's fourth straight day of violence.

Overall, the violence has claimed the lives of 15 Palestinians, nine Israelis and five Egyptians.

Palestinian police say Israeli troops arrested scores of Hamas members Sunday in the southern West Bank, just hours after the most recent rocket attacks from Gaza on Israel's south.

The Israeli military and Palestinian militants have carried out back-and-forth attacks since Palestinian ambushes inside Israel near the Egyptian border killed eight Israelis on Thursday.

Israel says militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip have fired more than 100 rockets into southern Israel in the past days. One rocket attack killed an Israeli man. The Israeli air strikes have killed mostly Palestinian militants. Civilians on both sides have been wounded.

Five Egyptian police officers were killed on the Israel-Egypt border as Israeli troops pursued the initial Palestinian attackers. The deaths sparked outrage in Egypt.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Saturday expressed regret for the officers' deaths and said Israel will conduct a full investigation with the Egyptian military. Egypt's government said the response was “not enough.”

Protesters outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo cheered when a man climbed atop the building and removed the Israeli flag, replacing it with an Egyptian flag.

Egypt's military-led government has threatened to withdraw its ambassador to Israel to protest the killing of the Egyptian officers.