GAZA CITY, July 15: At least five militants from the Hamas group were killed in Israeli air strikes on Gaza City and the West Bank on Friday, and Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warned that more strikes might be expected.

The army said the missions, which put even greater stress on an already teetering truce, were Israel’s first targeted killings in seven months.

At the same time military sources reported a build-up of Israeli forces just across the eastern border with Gaza.

But Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz told public radio that no ground operations were planned for now, to give Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas a further chance to rein in ‘terrorist’ groups and stop the firing of rockets on Israeli territory.

Hamas rocket fire from Gaza killed one Israeli and wounded two others this week. The army chief of staff, General Dan Halutz, said the attacks were ordered in the wake of continued Hamas attacks.

Earlier on Friday, Palestinian Authority (PA) personnel battled Hamas militants in Gaza City in a bid to stop the violence from unravelling the seven-month informal truce, killing two teenage bystanders in the process.

Four Hamas militants were killed when an Israeli helicopter fired rockets into a van packed with explosives travelling through Gaza City, sources on both sides said. Five civilians, including a child, were also wounded.

Moments earlier, two Israeli helicopters fired three rockets at a car near Salfit, not far from the West Bank city of Nablus and the Jewish settlement of Ariel, Palestinian security sources said.

The helicopters then pummelled the car with heavy machinegun fire before troops entered Salfit and imposed a curfew, medical and security sources said.

The Israeli army confirmed that the strike targeted two ‘Hamas terrorists’, but was unable to confirm whether both had been killed. Palestinian security and medical sources gave conflicting reports on whether one or two people had died.

And the Israeli air force launched a strike on a group of Palestinian militants in the central Gaza Strip, wounding one activist.

‘GATES TO HELL’: A Hamas spokesman said the air strikes had opened the ‘gates to hell’ and that the group was reconsidering the de facto ceasefire.