JERUSALEM (CNN) -- An Israeli navy gunboat fired shells into northern Gaza
on Friday, killing at least seven people on a beach where Palestinians were picnicking, Palestinian medical sources said.
Five militants also died earlier Friday in Israeli strikes, Palestinian sources said.
Also Friday, the military wing of Hamas called off a 16-month-old cease-fire with Israel.
A spokesman for HamasSami Abu Zuhri, said it was "impossible to remain silent" after viewing "terrifying pictures of the women and children" on the beach. (Watch the aftermath on the beach -- :46)
"These demonstrations emphasize the necessity of the renewal of the struggle," he said.
The IDF apologized and said it "regretted the strike on innocents," the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported.
The Israeli paper quoted Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas as condemning the killings as a "bloody massacre."
A mass demonstration erupted in Gaza City, where protesters called for revenge, including Thursday's killing of a Hamas official in an Israeli missile strike.
The Israel Defense Forces said it was shelling rocket-launching areas in Gaza from the sea. A representative said the areas were believed to be uninhabited.
The IDF halted firing pending an investigation of the strike on the beach at the village of Beit Lahya.
Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz, the IDF's chief of general staff, said the military is investigating the possibility that it was not naval artillery that struck the beach.
Video footage from the beach showed ambulance workers carrying away injured people on stretchers. A young girl was screaming for a parent in the footage.
Palestinian security sources said about 20 others were injured when Israeli shells hit the beach.
Earlier Friday, also in the Beit Lahya area, the IDF said militants launched a Qassam rocket that landed in Israel but caused no damage or casualties.
The militants got into a car, which the Israeli air force then attacked, according to the IDF. A large explosion followed. The IDF said it believed the blast was due to explosives in the car.
The three dead were members of the Popular Resistance Committees, a coalition of militant groups, Palestinian security sources said. Palestinian sources said the dead included two brothers and a cousin.
After the attack in Beit Lahya, a car was hit at Jabalya refuge camp, killing two militants, Palestinian sources said.
Last summer, under then-Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel withdrew from Gaza, and Israeli forces forcibly removed about 8,000 settlers from Gaza and four small areas of the West Bank.
http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/09/mideast/
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