Israeli troops kill Palestinians in northern Gaza

Israeli troops killed a Palestinian man this morning in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinians reported.

Hospital officials reported that the man, about 20 years old, was killed by machine gun fire from an Israeli tank unit near the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya. Another man was wounded, they said. The men’s identity was not immediately clear.

The army said Israeli troops in the same area saw a figure they deemed suspicious and opened fire, but believed he had managed to escape unharmed.

It was not immediately clear if this was the same incident in which the Palestinian was killed.

The Israeli military has been carrying out incursions into northern Gaza over the past few months in an attempt to stop Palestinian rocket fire, so far without success.

Yesterday, after the death of an Israeli civilian in a rocket strike the day before, the government ordered the army to further step up its operations.

Four Palestinians – two civilians and two Hamas militants – were killed in northern Gaza yesterday.

Israeli aircraft attacked a money changer’s office in Gaza City after midnight, hitting a power transformer and knocking out electricity in much of the city. The army said it targeted a building used by Fatah militants.