GAZA, March 16: Israel killed two Palestinians in an air strike into Gaza City on Tuesday, launching what it said would be relentless military action against militants after a suicide bombing at a strategic port, witnesses and medics said.

They said 14 people, including three children, were wounded as well when three helicopter missiles ploughed into a one-storey house which an Israeli army statement said was a "structure in which Islamic Jihad terrorists involved in attacks on Israelis were present".

Palestinian security sources and medics said one of the dead was a passerby. The identity of the second was unknown. Both bodies were badly burned, witnesses at the local morgue said.

Israel launched the air raid soon after its cabinet decided on military retaliation for a double suicide bombing that killed 10 people in Ashdod port on Sunday.

Sunday's double bombing at Ashdod, 25kms north of Gaza, shook Israel's sense of security because the attackers managed to sneak out of fenced-in Gaza for the first time in more than three years of conflict.

"This is part of a sustained, targeted and effective operation against terrorists who are continuing their attacks against Israel. "I am speaking mainly of Hamas and Islamic Jihad...," a senior Israeli source said. "We will likely be seeing more such operations in the coming days. No one will be exonerated. There will be no immunity."-Reuters