Palestinian medics wheel a wounded man in al-Najar hospital in Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, on July 07, 2014.(Photo: Said Khatib, AFP/Getty Images)
JERUSALEM — Palestinian militants vowed to take revenge on Israel Monday after at least seven members from Hamas were killed in an early-morning airstrike in the deadliest exchange of fire since the latest round of attacks began weeks ago.
The Hamas group, which rules Gaza, said "the enemy will pay a tremendous price," referring to Israel. The group said its men were killed by an Israeli airstrike on a tunnel used by the militants.
Two militants from a different group were also killed in a separate strike. The men were involved in rocket attacks on southern Israeli communities, the Israeli military said.
The attacks follow an announcement Sunday from Israeli authorities that they arrested six Jewish suspects in connection with the murder of an Arab teen whose death last week inflamed already heated conflicts in the region.
The Israel Security Agency said its agents and Israeli police made the arrests and that the suspects were being questioned. The agency declined further comment, citing a judicial gag order.
The murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir, 16, whose charred body was discovered in a Jerusalem forest Wednesday morning, sparked widespread Arab rioting in Israel.
Palestinians have insisted that the attack was carried out by far-right-wing Israeli nationalists in revenge for the murders of three Israeli teens. Israeli police had said they were exploring all possibilities, from an act by Jewish extremists to a Palestinian honor killing.
Palestinian Attorney General Muhammad Abd al-Ghani Uweili said Saturday that a preliminary autopsy of Abu Khdeir's body revealed that he had breathed in smoke — roof that he was alive when his body was set on fire.
Mohammed's cousin, a 15-year-old Palestinian-American, was injured during clashes with Israeli security forces last week. On Sunday, he was sentenced to nine days of house arrest, police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. Tariq Abu Khdeir, who lives in Florida but was visiting family here, will remain at a home in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Beit Hanina.
Tariq's family says he was severely beaten by Israeli police during protests in Jerusalem last week. The incident is under investigation.
When the news of Sunday's arrests broke Sunday afternoon, Israelis took to social media to express shock and disgust that a fellow Jew could commit such a heinous crime.
Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Avalon posted a statement on Facebook condemning Mohammed's murder.
"This is not our way, and the criminals who performed this heinous act brought disgrace upon the Jewish people and the state of Israel," Avalon said. "They must be brought to justice and prosecuted to the full extent of the law, as an example to others. Israel and the Jewish people's strength is based on the Jewish morals and values."
Jody Garfinkle, a Jerusalem mother of four told USA TODAY that "if these people are in fact the perpetrators of this horrible and inhuman crime they should be thrown in jail with no possibility of parole. Any person that would kill another human being and burn them to death is nothing other than a psychopath and does not belong in society."
Rahel Jaskow, a Jewish resident of Jerusalem, took a similar view. "Whoever they are, whatever their motive — if they are guilty, I wish them exactly the same thing I wish the killers of our own three boys: justice, swift and strong," Jaskow said. "If, in some parallel universe, I were the judge — Jewish or not — and the suspects were found guilty and were members of my own people, I would sentence them twice: once for the act itself, and a second time for dishonoring our people."
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel would act calmly and responsibly in the face of rising Israeli-Palestinian hostilities, just hours after Israel's military carried out airstrikes on 10 sites in Gaza.
The strikes killed seven Hamas members early Monday in the southern Gaza town of Rafah along the Egyptian border, the Islamist group told Reuters news agency.
The Israeli airstrikes targeted what the army said were militant sites including rocket launchers and a weapons manufacturing site, following at least 29 other rockets and mortar shells fired from the Gaza Strip at Israel over the weekend.
Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, a military spokesman, said the rocket attacks are "unbearable and unacceptable."
"We will continue to act in order to debilitate and incapacitate the Hamas terror infrastructure striking its warehouses, rocket manufacturing capabilities and those that endanger the well-being of the Israelis in the south of the country," he said.
Tensions have been high since the three Israeli teens were abducted on June 12. The Israelis blamed Hamas for their killings and launched a major crackdown against the Islamic militant group. Hamas denies responsibility.
Contributing: John Bacon, USA TODAY; the Associated Press
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