* Israel says men involved in terrorism and arms smuggling
* Hamas accuses Israel of assassinating its officials
(Hamas adjusts death toll, more army comment, details)
GAZA, Sept 19 (Reuters) - Israel killed two Palestinian
security officials in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Wednesday,
accusing both of involvement in attacks on Israel and weapons
smuggling from Egypt.
Officials with the Hamas Islamist group said the air strike
on a vehicle after dark in the town of Rafah on Gaza's border
with Egypt killed two officials in control of tunnels leading
into Egyptian territory.
After initially saying three had been killed, Hamas later
corrected the death toll to two and said the third man had been
critically wounded.
The Israeli military said it had targeted what it called
"terror operatives" involved in smuggling explosives into Gaza
from neighbouring Egypt, and in ferrying suicide bombers into
Egypt which they planned to use as a base to attack Israel.
Hamas accused Israel of having "assassinated" security
officers whose job it was to oversee tunnels used to bring goods
to and from Gaza via Egypt.
Israel accuses Hamas of using these subterranean conduits to
smuggle in weapons used to attack the Jewish state, and
frequently aims aerial fire at militants in Gaza in response to
rocket attacks on its southern towns.
Hamas has for months taken a backseat role in violence while
other Iranian-backed groups have stepped up fire into the Jewish
state.
But Israel holds Iranian-backed Hamas responsible for
security in the Gaza territory, which the Islamists seized in
2007 from the Western-backed Mahmoud Abbas, who remains the
Palestinian leader in the occupied West Bank.
Last week Israel killed six Gaza gunmen. Three were
suspected of firing short-range missiles at an Israeli town, and
three of planting explosives at the border.
The Israeli military identified one of the men it targeted
on Wednesday as a member of a "terrorist group sponsored by
Hamas" and charged he had been "in the final stages of preparing
to carry out a terror attack against Israeli civilians".
Israel said the man had been involved in operations "that
included smuggling explosive devices into Israel via the
Israel-Egypt border."
A second man targeted was a militant involved in smuggling
"two terrorists into Egypt in order to carry out a suicide
attack in Israel" and purchasing weapons, Israel said.
(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; writing by Allyn Fisher-Ilan;
editing by Andrew Roche)