Israeli forces today killed four Palestinians in the worst upsurge of Israeli-Palestinian violence in the Gaza Strip for weeks.
Palestinians said an Israeli missile struck a car in the northern Gaza Strip today, killing three Hamas gunmen. Among the dead was a local commander.
Earlier, a Palestinian woman was shot outside her home in southern Gaza. The army said soldiers searching for tunnels had fired at two gunmen in the area, hitting both of them.
Hamas resumed rocket attacks on Israel for the first time in one month on Thursday as nine Palestinians, including at least three Hamas militants, were killed.
Almost 240 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, have been killed since Israel launched its offensive in Gaza. Israeli troops had pulled out of the territory a year ago after 38 years of occupation.
There was also sporadic fighting in Gaza between rival gunmen loyal to Hamas and Fatah after a local Hamas leader and a member of a Fatah-dominated intelligence service were killed in separate incidents on Thursday.
Israel launched an offensive in the Gaza Strip in late June to try to recover a captured soldier and put a stop to cross-border rocket fire.
The worst internal fighting in a decade has stoked fears of civil war after talks between moderate President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas over a unity government broke down.
The current government is struggling under a US-led aid embargo designed to force Hamas to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept past peace agreements with Israel.