GAZA CITY (AFP) - Seven Palestinians, including a Hamas militant, were killed by Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip, taking the death toll from a huge Israeli offensive in the area to more than 100.
In the latest violence, two Palestinians were killed Saturday night when, according to Palestinian medical sources, an Israeli tank shell hit a house in the Jabaliya refugee camp, the focus of a punishing Israeli military operation launched 11 days ago.
The army denied responsibility, with a spokesman saying a Palestinian missile, aimed at a patrol of soldiers, misfired and hit the house.
Earlier, the armed wing of Hamas said member Abdelaluf Nabar, 25, was struck by a rocket fired from an Israeli combat helicopter on the camp.
Israel denied it had launched an air strike on the area, with an army spokesman saying soldiers had shot at a group of Palestinians who were about to fire an anti-tank rocket, causing the weapon to explode.
Another four Palestinians were killed earlier in the day.
Two militants from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, an armed offshoot of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement, were killed at Beit Hanun, in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian sources said. Israeli security forces confirmed there had been a clash with Palestinian activists in the area.
In another incident, two members of a Palestinian security force were killed and two wounded by Israeli forces at Khan Yunis in the south, hospital sources said.
The Israeli army told AFP an air raid had targeted a group of armed men seen in the sector.
Saturday's deaths brought to 105 the number of Palestinians killed during Israel's "Days of Penitence" operation, which is aimed at halting militant rocket attacks from Gaza on Israeli soil.
Since the start of the intifada or Palestinian uprising against Israeli occupation in September 2000, a total of 4,469 people have been killed, including 3,441 Palestinians and 954 Israelis.
The Gaza offensive has triggered international concern but an Arab-backed UN resolution calling on Israel to withdraw its forces was vetoed this week by its top ally, the United States.
Washington, like Israel, is refusing to deal with Arafat.
"I wouldn't deal with Arafat because I felt like he had let the former president down and I don't think he's the kind of person that can lead toward a Palestinian state," US President George W. Bush said Friday during a debate with Democratic presidential challenger Senator John Kerry.
"People in Europe didn't like that decision," Bush said. "But it was the right thing to do. I believe Palestinians ought to have a state, but I know they need leadership that's committed to a democracy and freedom, leadership that would be willing to reject terrorism."
Arafat, the head of the Palestinian Authority, has been widely criticised by the current US administration for failing to follow through on peace accords brokered by the previous administration of Bill Clinton.
In the northern West Bank, a Palestinian teenager was critically injured by Israeli gunfire during clashes between soldiers and Palestinian gunmen in the Balata refugee camp in Nablus, Palestinian medical sources said.
The 15-year-old boy was hit in the back by a bullet and evacuated to a Nablus hospital.
The local head of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades was also slightly injured by a bullet, they said.