GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Thousands of Palestinians are taking part in funerals of three Hamas policemen killed in rare bombings at Gaza City checkpoints the previous night.

Hamas's Interior Ministry said on Wednesday that investigations were ongoing, but an officer close to the probe said a suicide bomber was involved in one of the blasts that had targeted two checkpoints.

Hamas' security service was investigating whether the other also involved a suicide bomber. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk to reporters.

The militant Hamas group hasn't identified possible perpetrators, but the bombings bear the hallmarks of extremists influenced by the Islamic State group.

Hamas, which has run Gaza since 2007, has fought several rounds of bloody fighting with radical Salafists. However, these were the first coordinated bombings at Hamas-run checkpoints.

Mourners chant angry slogans as they carry the body of Palestinian Hamas police officer, Wael Khalifa, 45, in the family home, during his funeral in the Buriej refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019. Khalifa and two other Hamas police officers were killed in explosions that ripped through police checkpoints in Gaza City overnight, Hamas' interior ministry said. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Members of the Hamas police force carry the body of Palestinian Hamas police officer, Wael Khalifa, 45, during his funeral in the Buriej refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019. Khalifa and two other Hamas police officers were killed in explosions that ripped through police checkpoints in Gaza City overnight, Hamas' interior ministry said. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Relatives mourn the death of Palestinian Hamas police officer, Wael Khalifa, 45, in the family home, during his funeral in the Buriej refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019. Khalifa and two other Hamas police officers were killed in explosions that ripped through police checkpoints in Gaza City overnight, Hamas' interior ministry said. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra)

Relatives mourn over the body of Palestinian Hamas police officer, Wael Khalifa, 45, in the family home, during his funeral in the Buriej refugee camp, central Gaza Strip, Wednesday, Aug. 28, 2019. Khalifa and two other Hamas police officers were killed in explosions that ripped through police checkpoints in Gaza City overnight, Hamas' interior ministry said. (AP Photo/Khalil Hamra) </s> Hamas said Wednesday that two overnight bomb attacks killed three police officers in the Gaza Strip as the Palestinian enclave was placed under a state of alert

Gaza City, Palestinian Territories, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 28th Aug, 2019 ) :Hamas said Wednesday that two overnight bomb attacks killed three police officers in the Gaza Strip as the Palestinian enclave was placed under a state of alert.

Witnesses told AFP that both bombings were suicide attacks by assailants on motorbikes, but there was no official confirmation.

A source familiar with the investigation said a Salafist movement in Gaza that sympathises with Islamic State group jihadists was suspected.

Hamas's interior ministry confirmed the three deaths, but spoke only of two "bombings" in Gaza City without providing details.

It had earlier said two officers died in "two explosions targeting police checkpoints" late Tuesday night, before revising the toll to three.

Suicide bombings are rare in the Gaza Strip. </s> Hamas said Wednesday that two overnight bomb attacks killed three police officers in the Gaza Strip as the Palestinian enclave was placed under a state of alert.

Witnesses told AFP that both bombings were suicide attacks by assailants on motorbikes, but there was no official confirmation.

A source familiar with the investigation said a Salafist movement in Gaza that sympathises with Islamic State group jihadists was suspected.

Hamas's interior ministry confirmed the three deaths, but spoke only of two "bombings" in Gaza City without providing details.

It had earlier said two officers died in "two explosions targeting police checkpoints" late Tuesday night, before revising the toll to three.

Suicide bombings are rare in the Gaza Strip.

In August 2017, a suicide bomber killed a Hamas guard in southern Gaza on the border with Egypt.

Hamas, itself an Islamist movement, has run the Gaza Strip since 2007 but has been regularly criticised by more radical Salafist groups in the impoverished, Israeli-blockaded coastal territory. </s> Hamas says ISIL claim that three of its fighters attacked Israeli police is false and an attempt to 'muddy the waters'.

Palestinian groups have rejected ISIL's claim of responsibility for Friday's attacks in Jerusalem, which left one Israeli police officer killed and resulted in Israeli soldiers killing three Palestinians.

It is the first attack in Israeli-occupied territory claimed by ISIL, or the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group. But the statement it released on Saturday appeared to have major discrepancies with Friday's events.

Three Palestinians attacked officers at the Damascus Gate in occupied East Jerusalem late on Friday and were killed by Israeli security forces.

Another Palestinian man from Hebron was also injured by Israeli security forces, despite playing no role in the attacks.

READ MORE: How Israel has failed Palestinian victims

Hamas, the Palestinian group that administers the Gaza Strip, dismissed ISIL's claim, saying the three attackers had come from among its own ranks as well as the leftist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

Sami Abu Zuhri, Hamas spokesman, said the ISIL claim was an attempt to "muddy the waters", adding that the attack was carried out by "two Palestinians from the PFLP and a third from Hamas", AFP news agency reported.

The killing was "a natural response to the crimes of the occupier", he said.

Israel's Shin Bet internal security agency identified the three Palestinians as Bara Saleh, born in 1998; Adel Ankoush, born in 1999; and Asama Atta, born in 1998.

All three men were from the village of Deir Abu Mashal, near the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

The PFLP said Salah and Atta had recently been released from several months in Israeli prison.

The names differ from those reported by ISIL, which said the attack was carried out by three brothers by the names of Abu al-Bara'a al-Maqdisi, Abu Hassan al-Maqdisi, and Abu Rabah al-Maqdisi, AFP reported.

Since October 2015, about 250 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces, with many instances occurring within close range or during protests in occupied territory.

A number of local and international human rights groups have raised concerns that Israeli security forces have employed a "shoot-to-kill" policy when confronting Palestinians.

The Israeli police relaxed its open-fire regulations in December 2015, permitting officers to open fire with live ammunition on those suspected of throwing stones or firebombs as an initial option, without having to use non-lethal weapons first.

About 42 Israelis have also been killed in attacks carried out by Palestinians since October 2015.

Palestinians say those attacks result from anger over decades of Israeli occupation. </s> Hamas said Wednesday that two overnight bombings killed three police officers in the Gaza Strip in what witnesses called suicide attacks as the Palestinian enclave was placed under a state of alert.

Witnesses told AFP that both bombings were suicide attacks by assailants on motorbikes, but there was no official confirmation.

A source familiar with the investigation said a Salafist movement in Gaza that sympathises with the Islamic State group was suspected.

Hamas's interior ministry confirmed the three deaths, but spoke only of two "bombings" in Gaza City without providing details.

It said two of the police officers were 32 and the third was 45. Two separate police checkpoints were targeted, it said.

An investigation was underway as authorities pledged to track down the "masterminds."

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya sought to reassure Palestinians in the enclave of two million people.

"We assure our people that whatever these explosions are, they will be brought under control as with every previous event, and will not be able to undermine the stability and steadfastness of our people," he said in a statement.

Suicide bombings are rare in the Gaza Strip.

In August 2017, a suicide bomber killed a Hamas guard in southern Gaza on the border with Egypt.

Hamas, itself an Islamist movement, has run the Gaza Strip since 2007 but has been regularly criticised by more radical Salafist groups in the impoverished, Israeli-blockaded coastal territory.

The Israeli military said it had not carried out any air raids overnight.

The bombings come at a sensitive time.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008 and tensions have again risen between the two sides in recent weeks ahead of Israel's September 17 elections.

Israel's military on Tuesday bombed a Hamas military post after militants in the strip fired a mortar round across the border, the latest in a string of such incidents this month.

On Monday, Israel had launched air strikes against Hamas in response to rocket fire, while it also halved fuel deliveries to the enclave.

The punitive reduction in the flow of fuel to the strip's main power station means a cut in Gaza's already rationed electricity supply.

The incidents have threatened a fragile truce that had cooled several severe flare-ups between Hamas and Israel in recent months.

Brokered by UN and Egyptian officials, the ceasefire also involves aid to the Gaza Strip from Qatar.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is widely seen as wanting to avoid an escalation in Gaza before the polls due to the political risk involved, but he has faced calls for strong action from his electoral opponents.

As a result, there has been speculation in Israel that Hamas has turned a blind eye to recent rocket fire and infiltration attempts instead of preventing them in a bid to pressure Netanyahu into further concessions.

Hamas has not claimed responsibility for the recent cross-border incidents. Other militant groups, most prominently Islamic Jihad, also operate in the Gaza Strip. </s> Hamas said Wednesday that two overnight bombings killed three police officers in the Gaza Strip in what witnesses called suicide attacks as the Palestinian enclave was placed under a state of alert.

Witnesses told AFP that both bombings were suicide attacks by assailants on motorbikes, but there was no official confirmation.

A source familiar with the investigation said a Salafist movement in Gaza that sympathises with the Islamic State group was suspected.

Hamas’s interior ministry confirmed the three deaths, but spoke only of two “bombings” in Gaza City without providing details.

It said two of the police officers were 32 and the third was 45. Two separate police checkpoints were targeted, it said.

An investigation was underway as authorities pledged to track down the “masterminds.”

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya sought to reassure Palestinians in the enclave of two million people.

“We assure our people that whatever these explosions are, they will be brought under control as with every previous event, and will not be able to undermine the stability and steadfastness of our people,” he said in a statement.

Suicide bombings are rare in the Gaza Strip.

In August 2017, a suicide bomber killed a Hamas guard in southern Gaza on the border with Egypt.

Hamas, itself an Islamist movement, has run the Gaza Strip since 2007 but has been regularly criticised by more radical Salafist groups in the impoverished, Israeli-blockaded coastal territory.

The Israeli military said it had not carried out any air raids overnight.

The bombings come at a sensitive time.

Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008 and tensions have again risen between the two sides in recent weeks ahead of Israel’s September 17 elections.

Israel’s military on Tuesday bombed a Hamas military post after militants in the strip fired a mortar round across the border, the latest in a string of such incidents this month.

On Monday, Israel had launched air strikes against Hamas in response to rocket fire, while it also halved fuel deliveries to the enclave.

The punitive reduction in the flow of fuel to the strip’s main power station means a cut in Gaza’s already rationed electricity supply.

The incidents have threatened a fragile truce that had cooled several severe flare-ups between Hamas and Israel in recent months.

Brokered by UN and Egyptian officials, the ceasefire also involves aid to the Gaza Strip from Qatar.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is widely seen as wanting to avoid an escalation in Gaza before the polls due to the political risk involved, but he has faced calls for strong action from his electoral opponents.

As a result, there has been speculation in Israel that Hamas has turned a blind eye to recent rocket fire and infiltration attempts instead of preventing them in a bid to pressure Netanyahu into further concessions.

Hamas has not claimed responsibility for the recent cross-border incidents. Other militant groups, most prominently Islamic Jihad, also operate in the Gaza Strip. </s> Image copyright Reuters Image caption Hamas said security forces were pursuing those behind the bombings

Hamas is arresting suspected jihadist activists in Gaza, which the militant Islamist movement controls, after what a security source said were suicide bomb attacks on two police posts.

Three police officers were killed in the attacks, which are thought to have been carried out by extremists with links to the Islamic State (IS) group.

Gaza's interior ministry declared a state of emergency after the bombings.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya vowed to hold those responsible to account.

The bombings would "not be able to undermine the stability and steadfastness of our people", he added.

Image copyright AFP Image caption Hamas security forces deployed hundreds of personnel on main roads across Gaza

According to reports from Gaza, two police officers were killed in Tuesday night's first attack, in which a motorcycle exploded as it approached a checkpoint.

A second, similar, attack less than an hour later killed another police officer.

Israeli military sources immediately denied that they had launched any operations in Gaza and suspicion fell on Salafist jihadist factions, who have periodically challenged Hamas' authority in the Palestinian territory.

Image copyright AFP Image caption A state of emergency was declared following the bombings

Hamas recently released several prisoners from detention, as a gesture of goodwill, including some members of militant groups affiliated with IS.

The BBC understands that at least one of the suspected bombers had been previously detained and was one of those recently released.

The BBC's Wyre Davies in Jerusalem says these rare attacks are embarrassing for Hamas and could be interpreted as a renewed effort by Salafist jihadists to confront the group. </s> Two Hamas security force members were killed Thursday as they carried out a raid that resulted in the arrest of a suspect in a recent bomb attack against the Palestinian prime minister, officials said.

Senior Hamas official Salah al Bardawil issued a statement announcing the arrest of the suspect and two accomplices as well as the deaths of members of the security forces during the raid in the Gaza Strip.

An AFP correspondent saw the bodies of two security force members at the hospital and a senior police officer at the scene also confirmed the deaths on condition of anonymity.

A clash had erupted earlier in the day in Nuseirat in central Gaza as Hamas security forces engaged in a manhunt for the suspect.

Dozens of new checkpoints were also erected throughout the Palestinian enclave and armed security forces were searching cars, an AFP correspondent said.

Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah was unhurt by the roadside blast that struck his convoy on March 13, in what Palestinian officials have called an assassination attempt as he entered the Hamas-run strip on a rare visit.

Hamas did not give a possible motive for the attack on Hamdallah, head of government in president Mahmud Abbas's Palestinian Authority.

On Monday, Abbas accused Hamas of being behind the blast and said he would take new measures in response, without specific details.

Hamas and the West Bank-based PA have been bitter rivals for a decade since the Islamists seized control of Gaza.

The bombing appears to have brought to an end hopes for an already floundering reconciliation deal between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah party, which dominates the PA. </s> Gaza City: Hamas on Saturday said the three Palestinians shot dead in Jerusalem after the fatal stabbing of an Israeli policewoman belonged to local Islamist and leftist movements, rejecting an earlier claim by the Islamic State group.

"The claim by the Islamic State group is an attempt to muddy the waters," said Sami Abou Zouhri, spokesman for the Islamist movement which runs the Gaza strip.

The attack was carried out by "two Palestinians from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and a third from Hamas", he said.

The Islamic State, in an online statement, today said three IS fighters had targeted "a gathering of Jews" in an operation yesterday during which the three attackers were killed by Israeli police.

 The group warned that "this attack will not be the last."

During the attack, the police officer was killed and others were wounded, according to IS.

It took place as Muslims marked the end of the third Friday of the fasting month of Ramadan, during which tens of thousands of Palestinians from east Jerusalem and the West Bank attended prayers at the nearby Al-Aqsa mosque compound, Islam's third-holiest site.

The policewoman was stabbed and critically injured and later died in hospital of her wounds. She was identified as Hadas Malka, 23, a staff sergeant major.

Israeli police said the three Palestinian assailants were killed.

According to police, two perpetrators opened fire at a group of police officers who returned fire, and a third stabbed the border policewoman a short distance away before being shot.

This was the first time that the Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for an attack in Israel, according to the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors extremist organisations.

In its statement IS said the attack was "revenge for the religion of Allah and the sanctities of the violated Muslims."

"Let the Jews watch for the demise of their state at the hands of the soldiers of the Caliphate," the statement added.
Hamas says that on Tuesday night, three Palestinian police officers were killed and several wounded in two separate suicide attacks on police checkpoints. ISIL's affiliate in Gaza, the Sheikh Omar Hadid Brigade, are the suspected perpetrators.