GAZA CITY, July 17: Two militants were shot dead by Israeli troops on Sunday, as Israel carried out a fresh air strike and threatened a wide-scale ground offensive in the Gaza Strip unless Palestinians halted rocket attacks.

Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas said he was determined to stop the rocket attacks “at all costs” as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel’s defence establishment had been given carte blanche to halt them.

Six Israeli settlers were wounded, two of them seriously, after militants fired mortars and a homemade rocket at Neve Dekalim, the largest Jewish settlement in Gaza.

“I met defence officials and I repeated to them that there was no restriction on operations to stop attacks on (Israeli) towns,” said Sharon.

“We will absolutely not tolerate the continuation of attacks against our towns, be they inside the Gaza Strip or on the border.”

Said Saeam, 32, a wanted local leader in Hamas’s armed wing was shot dead as he left home in the Gaza town of Khan Yunis, the Israeli army and Palestinian sources said.

Another Palestinian was killed by Israeli troops as he allegedly tried to infiltrate the isolated Jewish settlement of Netzarim, the army said.—AFP