Israeli air strike kills militant in Gaza - medics

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - An Israeli air strike killed one Hamas militant and wounded five others in the northern Gaza Strip on Sunday, the Islamist group and medical staff said.

The attack, confirmed by the Israeli army, brings to six the number of Hamas gunmen killed in Israeli air strikes since militants from the group drove bomb-laden vehicles into an Israeli border crossing on Saturday.

Two Palestinian teenagers also died on Sunday of wounds sustained in an apparent Israeli attack that killed Reuters cameraman Fadel Shana in the Gaza Strip last week, raising the total death toll in that incident to six, hospital staff said.

Almost 20 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were killed in last Wednesday's attack in intense violence in the Hamas-controlled enclave, after militants killed three Israeli soldiers earlier that day.

Israel, which pulled troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, regularly launches raids which it says are aimed at militants responsible for cross-border rocket fire that has traumatised southern Israeli towns.

MAJOR ASSAULTS

Three Hamas militants were killed and 13 Israeli soldiers wounded in Saturday's bombing attack at Kerem Shalom in the southern Gaza Strip, the third major Palestinian assault on border crossing points in less than two weeks.