Military

DATE=8/03/2004

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

TITLE=ISRAEL / PALESTINIANS (L-ONLY)

NUMBER=2-318007

BYLINE=ROSS DUNN

DATELINE=JERUSALEM

HEADLINE: Three Palestinian Militants Killed by Their Own Bomb

INTRO: Three Palestinian militants died in the Gaza Strip Tuesday in a failed attempt to bomb Israeli troops. The incident came as Israeli forces continued their efforts to destroy tunnels used to smuggle weapons from Egypt. Ross Dunn reports from Jerusalem.

TEXT: The three militants were killed when a bomb exploded as they were preparing to set it off against an Israeli army bulldozer Tuesday in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement, said two of the dead were members of the group. A third was said to be a member of the armed wing of Fatah, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

Both groups have carried out frequent attacks against Israel and are listed by the State Department as terrorist organizations.

Rafah is one of the strongholds in Gaza for both groups. Palestinian militants have been planting mines in the area in a bid to drive out Israeli forces.

Backed by tanks and bulldozers, the Israeli army is in Rafah to locate and blow up tunnels used to smuggle weapons and explosives from Egypt into the Gaza Strip.

On Tuesday, Hamas broadcast a video on an Arabic television network showing three masked men in Gaza surrounded by weapons.

One of the men read out a statement threatening to rain down homemade rockets from the Gaza Strip on the nearby Jewish town of Sderot.

Sderot is in the southern Negev area of Israel, only three kilometers from the Gaza Strip and has become a frequent target in recent months for such attacks.

In June, a Hamas rocket killed two Israelis in Sderot, one of them a four-year-old boy. (SIGNED)

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