Gazan group vows response to Israel’s killing of three kids

The Gaza-based Islamic Jihad group on Monday vowed “response” to an Israeli airstrike that killed three children in the blockaded Palestinian territory a day earlier.

“The resistance factions will respond to the [Israeli] crime in the way they see fit,” the group said in a statement.

Three children aged between 12 and 14 were martyred late Sunday in the Israeli raid near the eastern border of the Gaza Strip.

The Israeli army claimed that "the children were trying to tamper with the security fence and apparently planted an explosive device".

But the Palestinian group described the Israeli narrative as “lies and misleading”.

“This is a complex crime that reflects how far the [Israeli] occupation’s fascism and terrorism has gone,” the Palestinian group said.

For the last seven months, Palestinians in Gaza have been staging regular demonstrations along the Gaza-Israel buffer zone to demand the right to return to their homes in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948.

They also demand an end to Israel’s 12-year blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave’s economy and deprived its two million inhabitants of many basic commodities.

Since the rallies began on March 30, more than 200 Palestinians have been martyred-- and thousands more injured -- by Israeli troops deployed along the other side of the buffer zone.