GAZA CITY (AFP) — The Israeli military killed three Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, bringing to 12 the death toll in one of the bloodiest 24 hours in the Hamas-run territory in recent months.
The escalation, in which another 21 people were wounded, followed a warning by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak that the clock was ticking down to a widescale military operation in Gaza aimed at curbing near daily rocket fire.
A pre-dawn Israeli air strike killed two militants from the armed wing of Hamas near the northern town of Beit Hanun, Palestinian sources said.
The army confirmed that it had "targeted a rocket-launching cell in northern Gaza who were about to fire into Israel, and we identified hitting them."
On Thursday night, another air strike there killed a member of Islamic Jihad and wounded another man, medical sources said.
The army confirmed that attack, which a spokesman said was aimed at a group that had just fired a rocket on southern Israel. He said there were no casualties in that attack.
Late on Wednesday, nine Palestinians, two of them civilians, were killed in two separate Israeli strikes in the impoverished territory.
In the heart of Gaza City, five militants from the radical Army of Islam -- which claims links to Al-Qaeda -- were killed when an Israeli aircraft targeted their truck.
A sixth member of the group died of his wounds overnight, medics said.
The Army of Islam was one of three Palestinian groups, including Hamas's armed wing, which claimed responsibility for capturing an Israeli conscript in a brazen and deadly cross-border raid in June 2006. He is still missing.
In Beit Hanun, two civilians and one militant were killed during an Israeli ground incursion on the outskirts of the town, when armoured vehicles backed by helicopters moved some two kilometres (one mile) inside Palestinian territory in search of rockets, according to the army.
"The army fulfilled its duty, which was a purely defensive mission," Israel's Deputy Defence Minister Matan Vilnai told public radio, referring to the Gaza operations.
"We attack people who fire on us and most of the time they are the ones that we hit, but sadly not all the time," he added.
Meanwhile more than 20 mortar shells and 11 rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza over the past 24 hours, causing minor damage but no injuries, the army said.
The violence marks one of the bloodiest 24 hours in Gaza since Hamas, a group pledged to Israel's destruction, seized control of the territory in mid-June, routing security forces loyal to moderate president Mahmud Abbas.
Nevertheless, Abbas lashed out against the operation in a statement released by Wafa, the official news wire of the Palestinian Authority.
"President Mahmud Abbas strongly condemned the military operations of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip which led to the killing and wounding of scores of martyrs," the statement said.
Abbas, currently in New York for the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly, called "for an immediate intervention to stop the slaughter the Israeli army is carrying out against our people in the Gaza Strip," it added.
Hamas also slammed the Israeli raids, with spokesman Taher al-Nunu saying it was "part of a strategy of war on the Palestinian people and on Hamas."
The Gaza operation came as Israelis began celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot (Feast of the Tabernacles) and as Gazans continued to observe the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Despite regular limited incursions and air strikes into Gaza -- with 1.5 million residents, one of the world's most densely populated places -- Israel has been unable to stamp out rocket fire from the territory.
On Wednesday Barak warned that "we are nearing an extensive operation in Gaza in response to rocket firing."
Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas official, warned that "any Israeli incursion, any Israeli escalation will fail," adding that it "will be met by martyr operations by both women and men," in reference to suicide bombings.
Vilnai did not rule out a large operation, but said he was opposed to "any attacks on (civilian) infrastructure inside the Gaza Strip," despite Israel's declaring it a "hostile entity" on Sep 19.
Vilnai also said he opposed cutting off electricity and fuel to the impoverished coastal enclave, insisting that Israel would be harshly criticised for the move and it would have little impact on the rockets.
"If the people are made to run out of electricity and fuel the last amount they have will go to the terrorists," he said.
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