BEIT HANOUN, June 29: Muslim militants launched rockets at an Israeli town during a visit there on Tuesday by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who pledged to prevent such attacks before and after a planned Gaza pullout.

Mr Sharon's tour of Sderot, near his Sycamore ranch in southern Israel, was not announced in advance, making it unlikely militants in Gaza knew he was in town. The two rockets fired during the visit did not land near him or cause any injuries.

Rockets launched from northern Gaza killed a three-year-old boy and a man, aged 49, in Sderot on Monday. They were the first people in Israel to die in dozens of such attacks since the start of a Palestinian uprising in 2000.

Israel responded by sending more than 25 tanks and armoured personnel carriers into the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, a regular launching ground for rockets barely 2km from Sderot, for what could be a lengthy stay.

"We are determined to take extensive action to ensure that what happened will not be repeated - not now, before we have moved out of the Gaza Strip, and not after we leave," Mr Sharon, referring to Monday's rocket attack, told reporters in Sderot.

Israeli forces killed a top commander of the militant Hamas group during the open-ended incursion into the northern Gaza Strip. In southern Gaza, soldiers shot dead a 14-year-old who Palestinian medics said was standing on the roof of his home.

Israeli military sources said troops fired at a person watching them from an abandoned building used by gunmen. Despite the Israeli operation in Beit Hanoun, militants managed to launch seven rocket salvos towards the Sderot area during the day, wounding two people. -Reuters