Four Hamas members and one 14-year-old youth were killed today in a pre-dawn clash with the Israeli army in southern Gaza, Palestinian security and hospital officials reported.
The security officials said the five, all members of the same family, were killed when an Israeli drone fired two missiles at a crowd of Palestinians in the village of Abasan, east of Khan Yunis.
The Palestinians had gathered outside a building where Israeli troops had taken up positions, the officials said.
An army spokesman denied that Israeli aircraft had fired into a crowd.
Israeli troops and aircraft operating in the area overnight had fired at and hit seven Palestinians, all of them armed militants, the spokesman said.
The army has been carrying out an offensive in the Gaza Strip since June, when militants linked to Hamas tunnelled under the border fence into Israel and captured an Israeli soldier, who remains in captivity.
AP