Israeli forces killed three Palestinians, at least one of them a militant, during separate operations in the Gaza Strip and West Bank on Wednesday, witnesses said. They said an Israeli air strike near the Gazan town of Khan Younis killed one man, while another died in a separate incident nearby.
Both men were civilians, the Palestinian witnesses said. The Israeli army denied that, saying that the first was with another armed man close to the border with Israel when he was targeted and the second was shot on suspicion of planting explosives.
In the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, witnesses said undercover Israeli commandos killed a member of the militant group Islamic Jihad when he tried to evade arrest. The army had no immediate comment.
Israel has been pressing an offensive in the Gaza Strip since the abduction of a soldier, Gilad Shalit, on June 25 by a group of militants, including members of the governing Hamas.
Wednesday's deaths came hours after four militants, believed to be members of Hamas, were killed in two Israeli air strikes in the town of Rafah, also in the southern Gaza strip, overnight.
A further 20 people were wounded in those strikes. Israel says its Gaza offensive is also designed to put a stop to the firing of makeshift rockets by militant groups into towns near the border. During the offensive, at least 208 Palestinians have been killed, about half of them civilians.
Israel pulled its troops and more than 8,000 settlers out of Gaza in August last year after 38 years of occupation in a move that many hoped at the time would lead to a breakthrough for relations between Israel and the Palestinians.
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