Israel kills 4 Palestinians in Gaza: Medics

Gaza, Aug 5: Israeli air strikes killed four Palestinians, including a militant, in south Gaza today, as troops moved closer to a refugee camp as part of an offensive against militants, medics and witnesses said.

Medics said a missile fired by an Israeli aircraft slammed in front of a house in the town of Rafah, killing two and wounding several members of a family, who had been fleeing increasing Israeli gunfire, witnesses said.

A third person wounded in the air strike died hours later, medics said. Two children were also among the wounded.

An Israeli army spokesman said the only strikes the military had carried out in Gaza close to the time of the attack took place about 2 km (1.2 miles) away from Rafah, in which two groups of Palestinian militants were targeted.

A second Israeli air strike in Rafah killed a militant from the Islamic Jihad group, Palestinian medics said. The Israeli army confirmed the second attack.

Israeli forces swept into the Rafah area on Thursday to destroy what the army called ''terrorist infrastructure'' as part of a wider offensive against militants, launched after gunmen captured an Israeli soldier in a cross-border raid on June 25.

Palestinian witnesses said that minutes before the strike, Israeli tanks rolled closer to Rafah's refugee camp and that troops had taken over a nearby Palestinian security post and shots were fired in the area.

An Israeli army spokesman said there was military activity in the territory and that he was checking the report.

Israel's Gaza offensive has killed at least 166 Palestinians, more than half of them civilians.

Israel killed three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip on Friday as it launched a series of air strikes on militant targets that wounded four other people, witnesses and medics said.

Israeli troops in the Rafah area have already taken over a 3-5 sq km area, carried out house-to-house searches and destroyed greenhouses and chicken farms.

Israel has rejected demands by militant groups that Corporal Gilad Shalit, captured in the raid to exchange the soldier for Palestinian prisoners.

Israel's offensive has increased pressure on Hamas, which rose to power in March, and had been under a Western aid embargo to try to force it to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept peace deals.

Reuters

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