Israeli forces have killed two Palestinians in continuing military operation in the Gaza Strip.
A member of the armed wing of the ruling Palestinian movement Hamas was shot dead in Beit Hanoun on Sunday.
Also on the day, a member of the security forces close to President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party was killed in nearby Beit Lahiya, medics said.
Israeli forces have killed 47 people since its 'Operation Autumn Clouds' began on Wednesday, more than half of them gunmen, according to Palestinian medical officials.
A four-year-old, a 12-year-old, two teenagers and a 70-year-old have also been among the victims.
One Israeli soldier has been killed during the operation.
In Beit Hanoun tanks and bulldozers surrounded the town's hospital. Soldiers warned that they would open fire on anyone trying to enter or leave the building, witnesses said.
"The soldiers in tanks ordered us to close the doors of the hospital and said not to move, otherwise they'll fire," Nasser Raduane, the deputy director of the hospital, told AFP news agency.
He warned that the building did not have electricity or enough water for its patients.
Warning
A Palestinian resistance group meanwhile has warned that the offensive could endanger the life of a captured Israeli soldier.
"We have no intention of killing the prisoner Gilad Shalit, but the Israeli air raids are risking killing him," said Abu Mujahid, a spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees.
"The soldier is alive," he said.
The PRC was one of three groups which claimed responsibility for the June 25 cross-border raid in which Shalit was captured and two other Israeli soldiers killed.
Mujahid said he was speaking on behalf of all three groups, which also include the armed wing of the ruling Hamas and the Islamic Jihad.
Rocket attacks
The Israeli government has said that 'Operation Autumn Clouds' was launched to stop rockets being fired into Israel.
"We have declared that we will never accept the ongoing Qassam [rocket] fire and that we would take any steps needed to considerably reduce the fire and prevent terror activity," Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, said.
"We have said so, we are doing so and we will continue to do so. The operation is limited in time but we have no intention of announcing when it will end."
At least one homemade missile hit the Israeli border town of Sderot on Sunday, the Zaka rescue service said. No one was hurt.
Photo Caption
Two Palestinian men carrying an injured man