The military wing of militant Palestinian group Hamas claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in the Gaza Strip today that slightly wounded two Israeli soldiers.
The group said in a statement that Tayseer al-Ajrami, a resident of the Jabalya refugee camp, was killed in the attack at the Erez crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel.
Mr Ajrami (26) was married and had three children. After it became clear he had been killed in the early morning attack, friends, family and neighbours gathered at his home. Women cried and grieved in the street.
"It is the time for me to offer my soul, a sacrifice for God," Mr Ajrami wrote in a note he left in his home.
"I have long wished to be a martyr for the sake of God to get revenge on the Zionists for all they have done to our people and last week the killing of five children and the assassination of the holy fighter Mahmoud Abu Hanoud," his letter said.
Mr Ajrami was referring to the death last week, apparently by an Israeli explosive device, of five Palestinian children in the Khan Younis refugee camp, and to an Israeli missile strike that killed Abu Hanoud, a top Hamas member, on Friday.
Hamas, responsible for suicide bombings that have killed scores of people in Israel, had vowed to avenge Hanoud's death. It said a mortar bomb attack that killed an Israeli soldier in Gaza on Saturday was part of its revenge.