At least eight Palestinian gunmen were killed Saturday, Palestinian sources said, as the Israel Air Force carried out strikes in the Gaza Strip aimed at halting Qassam rocket fire on southern Israel.

A member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades was killed Saturday afternoon when IAF missiles struck the car in which he was travelling, emergency workers said. Another gunman in the car was critically wounded and two passersby were also hurt, they said.

The Israel Defense Forces said the strike targeted members of the group, which is aligned to the Fatah movement of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

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Two Qassam rockets hit open fields outside of the southern town of Sderot before dawn on Sunday, but no one was hurt in the attack, Army Radio reported.

The army said soldiers destroyed the rocket launchers used to wage the attack.

At least 20 Palestinians have been killed by the IDF since Thursday, when it stepped up its Gaza offensive. The military says the operation is aimed at halting Qassam rocket fire at southern Israel. On Friday, three Israelis were lightly wounded when Qassams fell in the Sderot area.

Seven gunmen were killed and 15 others wounded on Saturday morning in an IAF strike east of Gaza City, close to the Gaza-Israel border, security officials said. All of the dead were later identified as members of Hamas.

Palestinian sources said that most of those wounded in the strike were also militants. Two of the wounded were in serious condition, and a woman was also among those hurt. Witnesses said ambulances driving to the scene came under fire.

More than a dozen IDF tanks also moved into the area, and Palestinian security officials reported exchanges of fire between IDF troops and Palestinian gunmen.

An IDF spokesperson said the Saturday morning incident began when an anti-tank missile was fired at an Israeli bulldozer. Troops responded with fire from the air and the ground. The IDF said it knew of at least one dead and several wounded gunmen.

Earlier, an IAF strike destroyed a house in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, witnesses and medics said.

Three Hamas militants killed in northern Gaza
The Saturday strikes come a day after the IAF targeted a car in the northern Gaza Strip, killing a local Hamas commander and two other Hamas operatives, the group said.

Israel Radio quoted Palestinian sources as saying that five passers-by were hurt in the strike.

The IDF said it attacked the militants on their way to firing Qassam rockets at Israel and that the car was full of rockets. The militants were also responsible for firing Qassam rockets at the Negev on Thursday, the IDF said.

In a southern Gaza village, local residents said the IDF shot dead a Palestinian woman Friday where soldiers and militants clashed.

Palestinian doctors said the woman was shot by an IDF sniper while she was standing outside her home.

The IDF said troops in the area identified two gunmen approaching them east of Khan Yunis, and opened fire, hitting both of them. The military said it was not aware of a woman being hit.

"The soldiers were operating in the area in search of underground tunnels and other security threats," an IDF spokesman said.

Israel Radio reported that one of the gunmen was killed and the other wounded.

On Thursday, at least eight Palestinians were killed Thursday in two separate IDF operations in the Gaza Strip. Five of them were militants and two were children.

Military sources said the IDF plans to continue its offensive because the Palestinian terror groups are continuing to arm themselves, Hamas is increasingly becoming involved in attacks on Israel, and talks aimed at securing the release of captured soldier Gilad Shalit have stalled.

On Thursday, Hamas vowed revenge for the deaths; the head of its political bureau, Khaled Meshal, called Israel a "cancer that must be pulled out by its roots."