JERUSALEM
Four Palestinians were killed while trying to infiltrate a military base in southern Israel by sea, an Israeli Army spokesman said Tuesday.
Speaking via Twitter, Avichay Adraee described allegations by Hamas that Israel had suffered heavy losses during the infiltration attempt as "lies."
The spokesman, however, gave no further details about the operation.
In a Tuesday statement, the Ezzeddin al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' armed wing, said its fighters had managed to infiltrate the Zakim military base in southern Israel.
Israeli media reported that the attackers had made it ashore and attacked the base with grenades and assault rifles.
According to Israel Radio, one Israeli soldier was injured during the infiltration attempt.
Israeli officials, however, did not confirm the casualty.
Earlier Tuesday, Israel's Iron Dome missile-defense system intercepted a rocket fired from the Gaza Strip over Tel Aviv, Israel's commercial capital.
Violence raged in the Palestinian territories on Tuesday after Israel launched a military offensive – dubbed "Operation Protective Edge" – with the stated aim of staunching Gaza rocket fire.
The Israeli army said Tuesday that its air and naval forces had struck scores of sites across the Gaza Strip overnight, while ground troops were being amassed on the strip's borders in advance of a possible ground incursion.
Gaza-based resistance factions, for their part, continued to fire rockets into Israel on Tuesday in response to ongoing Israeli airstrikes.
The latest escalations come amid heightened tension over the killing of three teenage Jewish settlers in the West Bank last month and the subsequent murder of a 16-year-old Palestinian boy by Jewish settlers.
By Abdel-Raouf Arnaout
www.aa.com.tr/en
