Two Islamic Jihad militants have been killed and three others wounded in an Israeli air strike targeting a car in Gaza.
It has been confirmed that a chief of the Al-Quds Brigades in the Gaza Strip, Imad Yassin, was killed in the attack.
Another militant, Habib Ashur, died of his wounds shortly after the air strike.
Several civilian bystanders were injured in the strike, which was the latest in a series of several attacks against militants launching rockets.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said the air strike targeted 'a car between Gaza City and the Deir al-Balah camp carrying an Islamic Jihad cell responsible for the firing of rockets into Israel'.
Islamic Jihad has fired a number of makeshift rockets into neighbouring areas in Israel over recent months.
According to the Israeli military, some 120 rockets have struck southern Israel in the past week alone.
The latest deaths raised to 5,110 the number of people killed since the Palestinian uprising erupted in September 2000.
Quartet close to deal on Palestinian funds
US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, has said the diplomatic quartet on the Middle East is close to an agreement on a European proposal to set up an emergency fund for Palestinians.
Ms Rice said work was continuing on proposals to distribute funds to Palestinians while excluding Hamas.
The so-called diplomatic 'quartet', including representatives of the US, Russia, the EU and the UN, hopes to publish a statement in the coming days.
Nearly all international aid to the Palestinian territories has been suspended since the Hamas government was voted into power.
Israel regards Hamas, which has carried out about 60 suicide bombings against Israelis since 2000, as a terrorist organisation and along with Washington and the EU has imposed an economic embargo on its government.
