Israeli airstrike kills Hamas member in Gaza

An Israeli airstrike in the GazaStrip killed a member of the Islamist militant Hamas group on Thursday and wounded threeothers, Hamas sources and medicalofficials said.

The Israeli military confirmed in a statement that it hadcarried out an airstrike. It said it targeted Hamas militants who were about to launch balloons rigged with flammable materialover the border into Israel.

After the airstrike, the Israeli military said Palestinianmilitants had fired mortar bombs at Israeli soldiers across the border, but no casualties had been reported.

Fires caused by incendiary helium balloons and kiteslaunched by Palestinians in Gaza over the border into Israel have ravaged tracts of farmland there in recent months. Israelhas vowed to stop the attacks, even at the risk of wider conflict.

Weekly clashes at the Israel-Gaza border have kept tensionsat a high for months. More than 130 Palestinians have beenkilled by Israeli forces during protests at the frontier heldevery week since March.

Israel says Hamas has been orchestrating the demonstrations,dubbed the Great March of Return, to provide cover for militants' cross-border attacks. Hamas denies this.

Cross-border violence surged on Saturday when Palestinianmilitants fired more than 100 rockets into Israel and the Israeli military carried out dozens of airstrikes in theHamas-ruled enclave.