Israeli tanks have killed eight Palestinians in Bait Lahya in the Gaza Strip, medics and security sources say. Aljazeera's correspondent in Gaza, Wael al-Dahduh, cited Israeli sources as saying the Israeli army fired three shells at Palestinian fighters on Tuesday. Palestinian witnesses said Israeli tanks fired into Bait Lahya shortly after mortars crashed into the nearby Jewish Nissanit settlement, wounding two people. Israeli settlements built on occupied Palestinian lands are deemed illegal under international law. Israeli sources said they had fired at a group of nine masked Palestinians who were seen with rocket launchers. **Farmers targeted*** But Palestinian citizens said they were shocked when a tank fired at an agricultural area where troops should have been able to distinguish between resistance fighters and citizens who work in the area. Palestinian security sources said the Israeli shelling targeted a group of farmers. The correspondent said most of the casualties were young Palestinian men and boys, four from one family alone. He added that six people had been injured, including four seriously. A number of victims were children although their identities were not immediately known, confirmed Mahmud al-Assali, director of the Kamal Edwane hospital. Israeli medics said Palestinian mortar bombs landed near an Israeli bus carrying school students in the Nissanit settlement area, injuring the driver and a student. **Toll keeps rising*** The violence erupted just one day after Israel said it had ended an armoured incursion into Bait Hanun and Jabalya in northern Gaza in what Tel Aviv said was another effort to eliminate rocket and mortar squads who target illegal settlements. But witnesses and Aljazeera's correspondent said Israeli troops had not withdrawn completely and were still in some areas in Bait Hanun and in southeastern Bait Lahya. On Monday, Israeli forces killed a 22-year-old Palestinian said to have been a member of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades and seriously injured a Palestinian girl in al-Shabura refugee camp in Rafah. About 20 Palestinians have been killed since Israeli forces began the latest military operations in the area last week. The latest deaths brought the overall toll since the September 2000 start of the intifada to 3624 Palestinians and 970 Israelis. **PHOTO CAPTION*** The bodies of eight Palestinians, most of them teenagers and seven of them killed by two Israeli tank shells earlier can be seen at the morgue in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya, Tuesday Jan. 4, 2005. (AP)