GAZA CITY, Sept 27: The Israeli military killed two Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip early on Thursday, bringing to 11 the death toll in one of the bloodiest 24 hours in the Hamas-run territory in recent months.

The escalation, in which another 20 people were wounded, followed a warning by Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak that the clock was ticking down to a widescale military operation in Gaza aimed at curbing incessant rocket fire.

A pre-dawn Israeli air strike killed two militants from the armed wing of Hamas near the northern town of Beit Hanun, Palestinian sources said.

The army confirmed that it had “targeted a rocket-launching cell in northern Gaza who were about to fire into Israel, and we identified hitting them.” Late on Wednesday, nine Palestinians, two of them civilians, were killed in two separate Israeli strikes in the impoverished territory.

In the heart of Gaza City, five militants from the radical Army of Islam -- which claims links to Al Qaeda — were killed when an Israeli aircraft targeted their truck.

A sixth member of the group died of his wounds overnight, medics said.

The Army of Islam was one of three Palestinian groups, including Hamas’s armed wing, which claimed responsibility for capturing an Israeli conscript in a brazen and deadly cross-border raid in June 2006. He is still missing.

It was also responsible for March kidnapping BBC reporter Alan Johnston, who was released after 16 weeks in captivity.

In Beit Hanun, two civilians and one militant were killed during an Israeli ground incursion on the outskirts of the town, when armoured vehicles backed by helicopters moved some two kilometres inside Palestinian territory in search of rockets, according to the army.

The ground operation ended early on Thursday morning, Palestinian and Israeli sources said.

More than 20 mortar shells and 11 rockets have been fired into Israel from Gaza over the past 24 hours, causing minor damage but no injuries, the army said.

The violence marks one of the bloodiest 24 hours in Gaza since Hamas, a group pledged to Israel’s destruction, seized control of the territory in mid-June, routing security forces loyal to moderate president Mahmud Abbas.

Nevertheless, Abbas lashed out against the operation in a statement released by Wafa, the official news wire of the Palestinian Authority.

“President Mahmud Abbas strongly condemned the military operations of the Israeli army in the Gaza Strip which led to the killing and wounding of scores of martyrs,” the statement said.

Abbas, currently in New York for the annual meeting of the UN General Assembly, called “for an immediate intervention to stop the slaughter the Israeli army is carrying out against our people in the Gaza Strip,” it added.

Abbas is “studying the possibility of calling the Security Council to convene an emergency session to stop the Israeli aggression,” and will be meeting with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon later on today, it said.

Hamas also slammed the Israeli raids, with spokesman Taher al-Nunu saying it was “part of a strategy of war on the Palestinian people and on Hamas.” Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas official, said the strikes were aimed at putting “more and more pressure on Hamas... The enemy wants to destroy Hamas and the Hamas government by escalating its aggression.” The Gaza operation came as Israelis began celebrating the Jewish holiday of Sukkot (Feast of the Tabernacles) and as Gazans continued to observe Ramazan.

Despite regular limited incursions and air strikes into Gaza — with 1.5 million residents, one of the world’s most densely populated places -- Israel has been unable to stamp out rocket fire from the territory.

On Wednesday Barak warned that “we are nearing an extensive operation in Gaza in response to rocket firing.” Radwan warned Israel against “any complete incursion into the Gaza Strip.—AFP