Israeli air strikes have killed four Palestinians in northern Gaza after militants fired rockets in defiance of the latest Middle East peace push.
The Palestinian presidency condemned the killings and accused Israel of endangering talks at a time when US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was pressing diplomacy in Jerusalem ahead of an international peace meeting.
Three civilian workers were killed when an Israeli shell exploded near the place where they changed clothes for their factory job.
An Israeli air strike killed a member of the armed wing of Islamic Jihad, and critically wounded another militant from the radical faction in the same area.
An Israeli army spokesman confirmed the two air strikes and ground shelling against northern Gaza in response to rocket attacks.
Militants launched eight rockets towards Israel, two of which fell on the town of Sderot and four in a community in the western Negev desert. There were no casualties or damage.
Ms Rice was in Jerusalem today on her eighth visit this year for a fresh round of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders to try to bridge gaps ahead of an international conference expected in Annapolis, Maryland later this year.
Today's deaths bring the number of people killed since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in 2000 to 5,921, the vast majority of them Palestinians.
