GAZA CITY, Sept 9 (AFP) - Four Palestinians, including a young boy, were killed Thursday and some 25 wounded as the Israeli army widened a major offensive in the Gaza Strip designed to halt rocket attacks by Hamas fighters.
Mohammad Ezzedine, 22, Sami Thabet, 18, and 11-year-old Munir al-Diqes were killed when soldiers opened fire at a group who were throwing stones in their direction in the Jabalya refugee camp, medical sources and witnesses said.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army.
Mohamad Al-Hadjali, a 24-year-old member of the hardline Islamist movement Hamas' armed wing, was killed earlier, while another three people were wounded in Jabalya in an exchange of fire with soldiers.
Twelve other Palestinians were also wounded when Israeli combat aircraft opened fire on targets in the same refugee camp in an overnight air raid, while another 10 suffered injuries on Thursday when soldiers opened fire in a bid to disperse a crowd throwing stones, the sources added.
The latest death brought the overall toll since the September 2000 start of the Palestinian intifada to 4,294, including 3,280 Palestinians and 943 Israelis, according to an AFP count.
The army launched a major operation on Wednesday in the north of the territory amid growing frustration at the continued firing of Qassam rockets, which take their name from the armed wing of Hamas, into southern Israel.
A similar six-week operation which wrapped up about a month ago was widely deemed a failure as the rocket attacks continued unabated.
Soldiers who had already taken up positions on Wednesday around Jabalya and the nearby town of Beit Lahiya, expanded the offensive on Thursday by pushing several hundred meters (yards) further south of the densely populated area with the help of reinforcements, witnesses and security sources said.
The soldiers destroyed one house and took control of a block of flats during their advance, the sources added.
But even as they widened the operation, another Qassam rocket was fired at southern Israel although it landed harmlessly in the Negev desert, an Israeli military source said.
Meanwhile in southern Gaza, militants fired a mortar shell at the Gadid settlement in the large Gush Katif bloc of settlements, damaging a hangar but without causing any injuries.
The same source added that soldiers had opened hit a Palestinian suspect as he was seen approaching another Gush Katif settlement, although it was not immediately known if he had been killed.
In addition, a soldier guarding the Neve Dekalim settlement in Gush Katif was wounded when Palestinian gunmen opened fire at his post. The victim was evacuated to hospital in Israel.
The flare-up in violence in Gaza began in the early hours of Tueday when an Israeli air strike killed 14 Hamas fighters who were undergoing military training on a football field in the east of the territory.
Hamas has vowed to exact a bloody revenge for the fighters' deaths.