One member of an armed Palestinian group has been killed and four others wounded in an Israeli air raid on the north of the Gaza Strip.

Witnesses and medical sources said the man, aged around 30, died after Israeli aircraft fired air-to-ground missiles east of Jabaliya early on Sunday.

The five members of the Popular Resistance Committees had been in position near the Israeli border in case of an Israeli ground operation.

An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the air raid.

Earlier, a Palestinian fighter was killed and three other people were wounded on Saturday when Israeli forces fired an anti-tank missile into the northern Gaza Strip.

The dead man was named as a member of the Executive Force, the police force of the Hamas movement which seized control of the Gaza Strip last June.

The four men were targeted by the missile near the town of Beit Hanoun, a source said.

An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the incident, saying an army unit had opened fire from inside Israeli territory, hitting two armed men.

It follows the firing of several rockets into southern Israel from Gaza earlier on Saturday.

The latest death brings to 6,034 the number of people killed in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 2000, the majority of them Palestinians, according to an AFP tally.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinians inspect a house destroyed by the Israeli army during a raid at Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. [Reuters]

Al-Jazeera