GAZA CITY, Oct 21 (AFP) - An Israeli man and two Palestinian militants were killed Thursday in two separate incidents in the Gaza Strip, sources on both sides said.
The Israeli was killed in an explosion in the Rafah district of the southern Gaza Strip, Israeli security sources said, without giving further details.
There was no immediate confirmation of his identity but sources within the radical Hamas movement earlier claimed to have launched an attack on a tank unit in the area, which lies on the Egyptian border.
Earlier, Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinian militants at an army checkpoint near Gaza City, sources on both sides said.
Islam al-Wadiya, 24, of Islamic Jihad's armed wing the Al-Quds Brigades, and Abdel Karim Mansi Zomlot, 19, a member of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, were killed during a joint operation to attack an army post at the checkpoint east of Gaza City, the two groups said.
Palestinian sources initially said only one had been killed but later confirmed the second death.
Israeli military sources earlier said they had shot and "apparently killed" two figures who were spotted crawling near the post.
In Gaza City, Palestinian medics said a 30-year-old man, who was shot during a massive Israeli army offensive in the northern Gaza Strip, died of his wounds early Thursday.
Mohammad Abu Helayleh was shot in the Jabaliya refugee camp, the main focus of Israel's Days of Penitence operation aimed at halting rocket attacks by militants.
It was not known if he was a civilian or a member of a Palestinian militant group.
His death brought to 130 the number of Palestinians killed during the Israeli operation, which was launched late last month and wrapped up on October 15.
The latest violence raised the overall toll since the start of the intifada or Palestinian uprising in September 2000 to 4,508, including 3,478 Palestinians and 956 Israelis.
In the West Bank, Israeli troops at Qalandia checkpoint stopped a 40-year-old Palestinian man who told them he was planning to attack soldiers with acid and a knife, an army spokeswoman said.
As the man tried to cross the checkpoint, which lies just south of Ramallah, soldiers arrested him after finding a jar of acid and a knife among his possessions.
Under interrogation, the man admitted he was intending to attack the soldiers, she said.
And in Jericho, troops arrested an Islamic Jihad militant at his home during an early-morning raid, Palestinian security sources said, naming him as 25-year-old Mohammed Inter.
Further north, the army demolished the homes of two Palestinian militants accused of involvement in a fatal shooting of a young girl, witnesses said.
The houses, which belonged to Samah Shubakhi and Mohammed Dura, were dynamited in a pre-dawn operation in the northern city of Qalqilya. They had been home to 26 people.
The pair, followers of Islamic Jihad, had been arrested by the army after shooting dead a young Israeli girl.
An army statement said the demolition sent a "message to terrorists and their accomplices that there is a price to pay for their acts" and that the army would continue to hit them.
Since August 2002 the army has dynamited hundreds of houses in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, targetting the homes of Palestinians implicated in attacks.
The policy has been denounced by human rights organisations which consider it a form of collective punishment.