Israeli ground forces, tanks and armored vehicles moved into two northern Gaza Strip towns Wednesday in pursuit of Palestinian rocket cells, killing at least five Palestinians, Palestinian officials said.
Hospital officials said a Palestinian woman, 35, was killed by Israeli shelling in northern Gaza Strip and that occupation troops killed a 14-year-old boy in a nearby refugee camp.
Israeli troops also killed an activist during battles in the West Bank town of Jenin, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades said. A senior commander in the Islamic Jihad in the West Bank was wounded in the clashes.
Earlier, troops killed two Hamas fighters over the course of an operation in the northern Strip aimed at countering rocket fire.
An Israeli soldier was moderately injured in the northern Gaza Strip on Wednesday during the operation. Late Tuesday, an Israeli civilian wounded by Palestinian rocket fire earlier in the day died of his injuries.
According to the AP, Israeli snipers positioned themselves on more than a dozen rooftops in Beit Hanoun and Jebaliya in northern Gaza Strip. Palestinian fighters faced off against troops in both towns with automatic weapons, rocket-propelled grenades and hand grenades, security officials said.
At a meeting of Israel's Security Cabinet on Wednesday, senior government ministers were in broad agreement that there was no point to pursuing a large-scale offensive in Gaza Strip without a political goal.
