GAZA CITY (AFP) - Israeli troops pressed ahead with a raid in the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Yunis in a bid to stop an increasing flow of mortar shells fired by Palestinian militants ahead of a planned Israeli withdrawal from the territory.
Two Palestinians were wounded early Sunday when an Israeli helicopter targetted what the army said was a weapons factory in the Khan Yunis refugee camp.
The air strike was launched just hours before Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon was expected to present a final version of his controversial Gaza pullout plan to the cabinet.
However, there was no immediate confirmation that the premier was going ahead with plans to brief members at the weekly cabinet meeting.
Sunday's air strike on Khan Yunis was the second in two days as the army struggled to stem the flow of mortar shells being fired at Israeli targets in the area, one of which killed a Jewish settler late last week.
Palestinian security sources said the early morning strike destroyed a metal workshop, but the army claimed the target was "weapons workshop of the Hamas terrorist group".
In a similar raid early Saturday, a 55-year-old Palestinian man was killed and four others were wounded when troops fired at what they said was a group of militants poised to fire a round of mortar shells.
Shortly after the raid, the army bulldozed 35 Palestinian homes, leaving nearly 50 people homeless, arguing that the building were being "used as cover by Palestinian terrorists to fire mortar shells and anti-tank missiles at Israeli targets".
Army officials warned Sunday that the more Palestinian militants fired on Israeli targets, the harsher the military response would be.
"We will take the gloves off," an army official told Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot on condition of anonymity.
"In every place where there is mortar or Qassam rocket fire, we will go deep into the territory in an aggressive manner, including demolishing homes. The more violent the Palestinian struggle becomes, the more the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) will lower restrictions on the use of force."
On Friday, a 24-year-old woman was killed when a shell landed on her home in the Jewish settlement of Neveh Dekalim, prompting Israeli officials to accuse the Palestinians of trying to perpetuate the conflict and to thwart Sharon's withdrawal plan.
"The Palestinians carry on with their never-ending murderous operations with the apparent intent to prevent Israel from seeing through its unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip," a senior Sharon aide said on condition of anonymity.
Last week, Sharon presented details of his controversial evacuation plan to his security cabinet, and was expected to lay the full details before the entire cabinet sometime this week.
The cabinet is set to vote on the project on October 24, and Sharon has said he expects the plan to win parliamentary approval in early November.
Under the terms of the plan, all troops and settlers in the Gaza Strip and four small enclaves in the northern West Bank should be evacuated by the end of 2005.
Meanwhile, a senior Palestinian militant was killed Sunday when his automatic rifle exploded without warning in a village near the northern West Bank town of Nablus, Palestinian security sources told AFP.
Jihad Hassan, 35, a senior leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed offshoot of Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, died in the blast which the sources confirmed was accidental.
Further north, Israeli military sources said the army had arrested a Palestinian woman in Jenin over a suicide attack plot. Palestinian sources confirmed the arrest, saying the 25-year-old woman was thought to have ties to Arafat's Fatah movement.
The West Bank and Gaza Strip have been sealed off for the last 10 days over the Jewish New Year and Yom Kippur holidays and are expected to remain closed until October 8.