Gaza rocket strike kills Israeli

The Hamas militant group says it fired at least 20 rockets, including eight at the town of Sderot, a frequent target.

The rocket fire came hours after an Israeli air strike killed five members of Hamas's military wing as they drove near Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

The Israeli fatality occurred when one of the unguided Hamas rockets hit a college on the outskirts of Sderot.

He is the fifth Israeli killed in attacks by Palestinian militants in the last three months. Since then more than 200 Palestinians have been killed by the Israeli army, most of them militants.

"There was mass hysteria in the college... people were shouting, screaming, crying"
Student Orel David

Israeli media said the rocket exploded in a car park at Sapir College and a student, 30, was hit in the heart by shrapnel.

"I saw the man with his chest gaping open and he was being tended by medics. When another alarm went off there was mass hysteria in the college... people were shouting, screaming, crying," said psychology student Orel David.

A second man received wounds to his legs and was taken away by stretcher.

Hamas officials said the five dead in Khan Younis included a senior engineer who built rockets and commander who led a rocket squad.

It was followed by a second strike on the same site that left three people wounded, medical sources said.

In other violence on Wednesday, a militant from the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad movement was killed overnight in an air strike in the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza.

Two other Palestinians were killed and two wounded in an afternoon air strike in Gaza City, witnesses said.

Gaza's rocket threat

In the West Bank, Israeli undercover forces killed a militant and wounded a bystander in a daylight raid in Nablus, Palestinian sources said.

The violence comes a day after two senior UN envoys told the Security Council that no progress had been made towards an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement since the launch of US-sponsored peace talks.

Israel carries out frequent military action in the coastal strip in an effort to curb near-daily rocket and mortar fire against southern Israel.

It is three months to the day since the US-sponsored Annapolis conference which was meant to restart the peace process between the Israeli government and the Palestinian Authority.