JERUSALEM (AFP) - The Israeli military launched another deadly air strike against Palestinian militants in Gaza, as the government said that it expected to withdraw from the territory under fire.
Two members of the Islamic radical movement Hamas, 34-year-olds Nabil al-Saidi and Rabah Zakout, were killed when their jeep was hit by Israeli rockets.
The Israeli air force confirmed that it had carried out the operation, saying the men were about to attack Israeli targets.
A Palestinian security official said that eight others were wounded in the strike, including two children, with two in a serious condition.
The strike came as the Israeli government promised to continue its policy of assassinating Hamas leaders.
Predicting an upsurge in attacks by Hamas ahead of Israel's planned withdrawal from the Gaza Strip next year, a senior government official said "we are determined to continue our strikes against terrorists".
"Hamas will want to portray the Gaza withdrawal as escapism on our part, in the same way they believe we were forced out of Lebanon by Hezbollah," the official said, on condition of anonymity.
He was referring to Israel's May 2000 pullout from south Lebanon following a campaign of sustained attacks by the Shiite militia Hezbollah.
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned Sunday that the army would not hesitate to fire back at militants "no matter where" at it prepared for the likely scenario of a Gaza withdrawal under Palestinian fire.
"The right way is first to warn those who provide shelter to the terrorists and, if that does not help, to attack the sources of the fire no matter where," he was quoted as saying during a weekly cabinet meeting.
On the ground, a Palestinian man was killed by Israeli army fire near a Jewish settlement in the central Gaza Strip on Monday morning, Palestinian medical and security sources said.
Hamas, meanwhile, delivered on its promise to avenge the death of its fighter Khaled Abu Salmieh in an Israeli air strike in Gaza City late Sunday.
The group claimed responsibility for launching a makeshift rocket at the southern Israeli town of Sderot on Monday.
Military sources said the Qassam rocket -- named after the Islamist group's military wing -- did not cause any casualties.
The army has been battling with rocket attacks for months, including during a five-week offensive in the northern Gaza Strip that ended in early August and a four-day raid in the same area earlier this month.
But every attempt to stop the rocket attacks has so far failed.
The US consul here, David Pearce, stressed that Sharon's disengagement plan, which involves the evacuation of Gaza's 8,000-strong Jewish population and the dismantling of four more settlements on the northern West Bank next year, should be carried out in line with the internationally drafted peace roadmap.
"We have always said that the disengagement should be consistent with the roadmap and not the end of the process," Pearce told the Palestinian daily Al-Quds.
The blueprint, which was launched with great fanfare by US President George W. Bush last year but has since made no headway, calls for an end to the violence and the creation of a Palestinian state by the end of 2005.
Pearce, however, praised the planned Gaza withdrawal, saying it is "an indication of progress towards achieving Palestinian sovereignty over a territory in formerly occupied land and toward eventually creating a Palestinian state".
Sharon has made clear the Gaza pullout will help consolidate the Jewish presence on the West Bank, home to as many as 240,000 settlers.
Hamas, seeking to step into the vacuum left by the pullout, has said it will contest elections in the Palestinian territories scheduled for next year.
But a poll published by the West Bank's Bir Zeit university on Monday found that while Hamas and its fellow Islamists from the smaller Islamic Jihad faction would make inroads, veteran Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and his mainstream Fatah faction were headed for victory.