KHAN YOUNIS, (PIC)-- An Israeli airstrike has killed at an early hour Saturday five Qassam fighters during their night watch and wounded three others to the east of Khan Younis, southern Gaza Strip.

Medical sources confirmed to the PIC reporter, the death of Mohammed Abu Anza, his brother Ziad, Ibrahim Albraim, Jihad Qudaih, Tamer Abu Jama and injury of three others while trying to save those injured in the airstrike.

Local sources reported that the Israeli warplanes targeted fighters of Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wings of Hamas with three air-to-surface missiles at 12:50 am on Saturday before resuming firing another batch of missiles on the same area.

The sources told the PIC reporter that the Israeli warplanes opened fire indiscriminately from their machine guns on the area to prevent the access of Palestinian rescue workers and ambulance crews to reach and rescue the injured.

In a communiqué received by the PIC, Al-Qassam Brigades mourned on Saturday the death of its fighters, confirming that all options are open to retaliate to these Israeli crimes, especially after the Annapolis conference, which gave the Israelis a green light to commit more and more atrocities against the Palestinian people.

The Brigades underlined that the assassination of Qassam fighters will not make it any easier for an Israeli attempts to invade the Gaza Strip, adding that the road into Gaza is full of surprises for the occupation troops.

In earlier retaliation to the Israeli crimes against the Palestinian people in the West Bank and Gaza, Al-Qassam fighters had managed at noon Friday to fire five mortar shells on Israeli army vehicles while they were bulldozing lands near the Srij gate to the east of Al-Qarara, southern Gaza Strip.