GAZA CITY, July 22: At least two activists of militant Palestinian group Islamic Jihad were killed on Sunday in an Israeli air raid in the north of the Gaza Strip, medical sources said.

The deaths followed the killing of two Hamas militants by Israeli gunfire earlier in the day, also in Gaza.

The air strike was against a group of men firing rockets at Israel in the Beit Hanun sector of the impoverished coastal strip, the sources said.

The Israeli army confirmed the air raid. “We targeted two men firing rockets at Israel. We apparently hit them,” an army spokesman said.

Earlier, an Israeli woman was lightly injured by a rocket attack launched by Gaza-based Palestinian militants against the southern town of Sderot, medical sources said.

The two Hamas activists were killed early morning on the northern border of the Gaza Strip, the armed wing of the Islamist movement announced.

“Two of our fighters were killed in an exchange of fire” with the Israeli army, the Ezzedin Al-Qassam Brigades said.

Palestinian medical sources said the two men were killed near the electric fence surrounding the Gaza Strip, near Beit Lahiya.—AFP