GAZA CITY, Dec 20: The Israeli army killed at least three militants in the central Gaza Strip on Thursday in the latest military operation in the Hamas-run territory, Palestinian medics said.

Muawiya Abu Hassanein, director of emergency services in Gaza, had initially said four militants were killed, but later amended the toll when one of them turned out to be alive but in critical condition.

Two of the victims, Walid Kalub, 21, and Mahmoud al-Mishal, 27, were members of the armed wing of Hamas, while the third, Jihad Seidam, 18, was a member of the armed wing of the radical Islamic Jihad group.

Another eight people had been wounded in the fighting, including a cameraman for a Western news organisation, Hassanein said, adding that ambulances were prevented from reaching the battlefield to retrieve more casualties.

An Israeli army spokesman confirmed that troops had moved into central Gaza for a “routine” operation in the area, adding that the army had received no reports of ambulances being fired upon.

Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopters advanced nearly one kilometre into the Gaza Strip in the early morning, just east of the central Maghazi refugee camp, Palestinian eyewitnesses said. Hours later a rocket fired by Gaza militants struck some 40 metres from a school in central Sderot.—AFP