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Summary Seven Israelis were killed in a string of attacks in southern Israel Thursday.
Hours later the Israeli military hit back with brute air raids on Gaza.The bloodshed, which killed six civilians and a soldier on two desert roads near the Red Sea resort town of Eilat, prompted a wave of international condemnation led by the White House.Within hours of the coordinated attacks, which saw gunmen ambush a bus, detonate a bomb under a military jeep, and fire an RPG at a civilian car, Israeli troops claimed hunting down and killing seven of the attackers.And shortly afterwards, Israel hit back at the Gaza-based militant group it accused of responsibility for the attacks, launching air raids that killed six people in a house in the southern city of Rafah, medics said.Among the dead was the head of the Popular Resistance Committees, and two other senior members of the group, which the military said was behind Thursdays bloodshed in the southern Negev desert.The attacks began around noon, with two incidents on route 12, a desert road which flanks the Egyptian border, some 25 kilometres (15 miles) north of Eilat.In the first incident, gunmen strafed a bus, injuring 14 people; shortly afterwards, they detonated a roadside bomb as a military vehicle rushed to the scene, injuring several soldiers.Security sources told a news agency of a third incident on another desert road near the Jordanian border, in which an RPG was fired at cars driving near Beer Ora, some 15 kilometres (nine miles) north of Eilat.Medics said all seven victims died in the third attack, including four travelling in the same car, and unconfirmed reports suggested militants had also fired mortars in the area.There were also unconfirmed reports that an anti-tank missile had been fired into Israel from across the border in Egypt.
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