Air strike kills Gaza militants

The car came under fire near the Rafah refugee camp

Two Palestinian militants have been killed in an Israeli missile strike on a car in the southern Gaza Strip.

One of the dead was named as Amr Abu Suta, the leader of a small militant group, the Abu al-Rish Brigades.

He was travelling near Rafah refugee camp with a bodyguard, when their car came under fire from an Israeli helicopter and burst into flames.

The Israeli army confirmed it carried out the attack, blaming Mr Abu Suta for the deaths of several Israelis.

It said in a statement that just a few days ago, Mr Abu Suta was behind a shooting incident which left an Israeli officer wounded.

He is also accused of involvement in a 1992 killing in a Jewish settlement in Gaza.

The Abu al-Rish Brigades is a small militant offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement. The group admitted briefly kidnapping four French aid workers hostage in Gaza during a recent wave of unrest.

The Israeli army has carried out frequent operations against armed groups around Rafah in recent months.

Earlier, the army said two militants died when a bomb they were trying to plant at a Jewish settlement near the town of Khan Yunis went off.

Some Palestinian sources said the two men had been shot at by an Israeli tank, but the army said it was not involved in the incident.

Meanwhile Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian in a gun battle near the West Bank town of Tulkarm.

The Israelis said their soldiers had been arresting suspected Palestinian militants when gunmen opened fire on them.

Israeli radio named the man as Zair al-Ashkar, 26, the commander of the military wing of Islamic Jihad in the area.

Also, several people were treated for shock after two home-made Palestinian rockets landed in the Israeli town of Sderot.

The attack came six weeks after two Israelis died in a rocket attack in the town. That sparked an Israeli army operation in the northern Gaza Strip to locate and destroy rocket launchers.