Israel kills top militant, Gaza rocket attacks resume

NABLUS, West Bank, Aug 31 (Reuters) Israeli troops killed a top militant commander during a West Bank raid today, while Palestinian gunmen in the Gaza Strip renewed rocket attacks that had largely stopped during Israel's Lebanon war.

Israel also ended a deadly six-day incursion into a militant stronghold in Gaza.

In the West Bank city of Nablus, Israeli soldiers shot dead Fadi Khafisha of the al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah group, Palestinian security sources said.

Khafisha was known for helping plan suicide bombings in Israel.

Israeli soldiers shot him in the Old City of Nablus while another senior militant was among five people wounded in an exchange of fire, the security sources said.

An army spokeswoman said the gunmen fired first. She said troops shot one of them but could not confirm Khafisha's death.

In Gaza, militants launched several makeshift rockets at southern Israeli towns, the first barrage fired in weeks, the army said.

One hit the city of Ashkelon, rescue services said. There were no reports of casualties.

An Israeli security chief said this week that Palestinian militants may have been emboldened after the Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah fired 4,000 rockets at northern Israel and killed scores of troops in ground fighting during the war.

Israel launched an offensive in Gaza in late June that has reduced the rocket fire.

Earlier today, Israeli troops pulled out of the Shijaiya district in Gaza, a militant stronghold, after six days of fighting in the area.

An army spokeswoman said troops had shot 40 Palestinian gunmen during the raid and that there were no casualties among the soldiers. Israeli troops killed four Palestinian gunmen and four civilians in Shijaiya yesterday, medics said. Troops also found a tunnel in the Shajaiya area that soldiers suspected was meant to be used to attack Israelis, the spokeswoman said.

Israel has killed more than 200 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, during the offensive in Gaza, which was initially launched to try to free a soldier abducted on June 25 by militants including members of the governing Hamas movement.

Israel had pulled troops and settlers out of Gaza last year after 38 years of occupation.

REUTERS MS DS1230