GAZA CITY
The Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing, has claimed responsibility for a Monday attack on an Israeli tank on the Gaza border.
"An Israeli tank was attacked with an anti-tank rocket on the Gaza Strip's eastern border," the Brigades declared in a statement.
According to the statement, the tank was destroyed in the attack.
The Israeli army, for its part, admitted that the attack had occurred, but denied that the tank had sustained any damage.
At least 177 Palestinians have been killed – and more than a thousand injured – since last Monday, when Israel began a major air offensive against the Gaza Strip with the stated aim of halting rocket fire from the coastal territory.
Israeli ground troops remain amassed on the strip's borders, meanwhile, in advance of a possible ground assault.
Gaza-based resistance factions, for their part, have continued to fire rockets into Israel – some of which have reached Tel Aviv – in response to the ongoing offensive.
By Ola Attalah
www.aa.com.tr/en
