Israeli air raid in Gaza kills one, wounds three: officials

An Israeli air raid today in the northern Gaza Strip targeting alleged militants killed one Palestinian and wounded three others, the Israeli army and a Palestinian official said.
Israeli aircraft "targeted a terror cell plotting to detonate an explosive device against (military) forces stationed along the border of the northern Gaza Strip," the Israeli army said.
It declined to provide further details on the raid.
A Gaza health ministry spokesman said one person was killed and three wounded on a beach in the area of Beit Lahiya, located near the Palestinian enclave's northern border with Israel.
The spokesman, Ashraf al-Qudra, identified the person killed as Musa Abu Zuaiter, 31, and said the casualties were the result of Israeli rocket fire.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party, said he was one of its members and vowed revenge.

Gun-wielding masked militants from the group were seen attending his funeral in the Jabalia refugee camp.
The air raid marks a departure from recent Israeli strikes in the Gaza Strip, which have usually followed rocket fire from Palestinian militants and have rarely led to casualties.
There was no reported rocket fire from Gaza before today's strike, but there have been a number of recent incidents along the Gaza border, including explosions and gunfire targeting Israeli soldiers.

"Forces guarding the border with Gaza face a growing threat from hostile terror groups attempting to destabilise the situation on the ground," Israeli military spokesman Peter Lerner said in a statement following today's strike.
Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, ruled by Islamist movement Hamas, have fought three wars since 2008, including a devastating 50-day conflict in 2014. The enclave remains under an Israeli blockade.
Senior Hamas official Salah al-Bardawil warned Israel after the strike that "targeting citizens in Beit Lahiya this morning is playing with fire."
The raid comes amid a wave of Palestinian knife, gun and car-ramming attacks in Israel and the occupied West Bank that began in October.

The Gaza Strip has remained largely calm, though violent protests have broken out along the heavily guarded border and a number of Palestinians have been killed during clashes with Israeli forces.