An Israeli helicopter fired at least one missile at an office of the Islamic militant group Hamas in the Jabalya refugee camp in the Gaza Strip today, killing two, Palestinian security sources said.
The deaths bring to 15 the number of people killed in violence over the past 24 hours.
The two dead men were Hamas activists who were inside the office that served as a Hamas media centre, according to group members and Jabalya residents.
The army said in a statement it struck what it called a Hamas command post in Jabalya in response to the recent wave of murderous terror attacks.
Hospital officials said a schoolgirl (9) who was passing outside the building at the time of the attack was in critical condition and undergoing surgery.
Eight other people, most of them children or youths, were wounded in the strike, hospital officials said.
Before the helicopter strike, nine Palestinians and four Israelis had died since early yesterday. The bloodshed included a Palestinian suicide bombing and a fatal ambush on an Israeli convoy yesterday, as well as Israeli air strikes and raids overnight in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Three people, including a woman and her daughter, were killed by tank shells during a raid by Israeli forces near Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip overnight, Palestinian sources said.
In one house, rescuers found the bodies of Miriam al-Bahaifa (36) and her daughter Mouna (14), while the body of Abdel el Wahad al-Najar (20) was found in another house. Six other Palestinians in a third house were also wounded.
Separately, Israeli soldiers shot dead a Palestinian near a group of Israeli settlements in the south of the Gaza Strip, Palestinian officials said. The unidentified Palestinian was killed near the main road leading to the Gush Katif settlements.
Earlier, three Palestinians had been killed and several wounded in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
Two Palestinians were shot dead and six were wounded early today in the Balata refugee camp near Nablus in the West Bank, security sources said. A Palestinian gunman was also killed trying to break into the Jewish settlement of Morag in the southern Gaza Strip last night.
Israeli raids on Palestinian targets followed a meeting in Jerusalem late last night between Prime Minister Mr Ariel Sharon and his army chiefs to discuss Israel's response to recent attacks.
Four Israelis were killed in two separate Palestinian suicide attacks in the West Bank and Gaza Strip yesterday.
AFP and