GAZA CITY, Feb 28: Three Palestinians, including an Islamic Jihad activist, were killed on Saturday when an Israeli Apache helicopter fired three missiles at a car near Gaza City , in what was the first targeted assassination of Palestinian militants by Israel in two months.

Palestinian sources said the helicopter, backed by an F-16 fighter jet, fired three missiles in the Saftawi neighbourhood, completely destroying the Subaru car and causing damaged to several other cars and houses in the area.

Medics said eight people were wounded in the strike, one of whom was a six-year-old child, whose condition was said to be critical.

Security officials named one of the victims as Amin al Dahduh, 42, a militant belonging to the Islamic Jihad.

Al Dahduh was travelling in the car with his 20-year-old cousin Ayman, who was not said to belong to the radical Palestinian group.

The third victim, whose identity was not immediately clear, was a bystander, the security sources said.

The latest deaths brought the number of people killed since the Palestinian uprising began in Sept 2000, to 3,789.

The last such raid, which unsuccessfully targeted two militants from the Hamas group, saw Israeli helicopter gunships firing two rockets at a car in Gaza City on Dec 30, wounding 11.

It came just days after another Israeli air raid on Gaza City, which left five Palestinians dead, including two military leaders of Islamic Jihad.

December's airstrikes followed a lull of more than two months in the targeted assassinations of senior Palestinian militants.-AFP