By Xinhua
Gaza : A fifth Palestinian militant was killed on Thursday evening during the ongoing Israeli ground and air strikes on southeast Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics said.
Medics in southern Gaza Strip said that an Islamic Hamas militant was killed and two were wounded in a fresh Israeli airstrike on Palestinian militants in the area.
Eyewitnesses said that dozens of Israeli army tanks, armored vehicles and bulldozers rolled before dawn into al-Fakhari neighborhood east of the city of Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip.
They said that heavy armed confrontations erupted between the militants and Israeli soldiers in the neighborhood which is adjacent to the borders between southeast Gaza Strip and Israel.
An Islamic Hamas militant was killed at the very first moment of the Israeli incursion and five others were injured. Several houses were stormed, and its roofs were seized by the soldiers, said the eyewitnesses.
Israeli bulldozers backed by tanks and armored vehicles had also razed several cultivated farms in the neighborhood in the ongoing military operation, while attack helicopters fired missiles and heavy ammunition at the area.
Later on Thursday, an Israeli aircraft fired an air-to-ground missile and struck a Palestinian militants' car, three Islamic Jihad militants were killed in the attack, including a senior militant who escaped death twice this week.
In the town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip, one Palestinian militant was severely injured and 25 people were detained during another Israeli ground military operation into the town.
Saraya al-Quds, armed wing of Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for launching several homemade rockets from Gaza Strip at southern Israel. Hamas armed wing al-Qassam Brigades also fired 12 mortars at Gaza-Israel borders.
Mohamed al-Hindi, a prominent Islamic Jihad leader in Gaza denied that Hamas movement which rules the Gaza Strip since June14 had requested from his movement to stop rockets attacks on Israel.
"The Islamic Jihad would never stop its rockets strikes on the Zionist entity. Resistance against the occupation is our legitimate right and no one would be able to prevent the Palestinians from resistance," said al-Hindi.