The roof of a mosque in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun collapsed on about 60 Palestinian gunmen holed up inside early Friday as they exchanged fire with Israel Defense Forces troops. A gunman was said killed in the clashes, and five militants were killed by the IDF elsewhere in Gaza and in the West Bank.

Most of the gunmen, representing several militant factions, escaped the mosque unharmed, Palestinian sources said.

Palestinian witnesses said IDF bulldozers demolished a wall of the mosque and fired stun grenades and tear gas in an effort to force them to surrender.

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A military source said troops exchanged fire at the mosque after being shot at. The source said some militants had given themselves up. The gunmen included militants involved in rocket attacks against Israel, the source said.

"We are using every means not to damage the mosque," the source said.

Residents said the town of 30,000 people was effectively under an army curfew and under its control.

The army launched the operation in Beit Hanun on Wednesday morning, which it said is aimed at disrupting and preventing the launching of Qassam rockets into southern Israel.

IAF strike kills 4 Hamas men in Gaza
Also Friday, an Israel Air Force air strike killed four militants of Iz al-Din al-Qassam, Hamas' militant wing, in the Gaza City neighborhood of Sajaiya.

In the Balata refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus, IDF troops killed Ibrahim Sanakra, brother of Alaa Sanakra, Nablus leader of the Fatah-linked Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militant group.

Gaza hospital officials said early Friday that a 4-year-old boy had died of wounds sustained Thursday by IDF shelling during the operation. The boy's death brings to eight the Palestinian death toll Thursday, four of whom were militants. Eight Palestinians and an IDF soldier were also killed Wednesday.

In a separate incident, Palestinian witnesses and medical officials said an air strike east of the neighboring northern town of Jabalya had critically wounded two militants.

A military spokesman said an aerial attack had targeted armed gunmen planting explosives they intended to detonate against IDF troops.

Two Palestinians were killed late Thursday in an Israel Air Force air strike just outside Beit Hanun. The IDF said it was targeting Qassam crews who had earlier fired the homemade rockets into Israel.

Some 35 people were wounded in clashes between IDF troops and militants in Beit Hanun earlier Thursday.

Hundreds of militants were arrested during the raid, Palestinian sources said, in which troops rounded up all men between the ages of 16 and 40.

The three civilians killed Thursday have been identified as Diya Basyuni, 65; Masada al-Hawihi, 40; and Issam Abu-Uda, 29.

The IDF said its forces were targeting only militants, and did not confirm the wounded family. "We have no knowledge of such an incident at the moment," a spokeswoman said.

Two of the militants killed Thursday were named as Palestinian Resistance Committees member Yusef Aqel, 23, and Bassam al-Jamal, 21, one of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh's bodyguards.

Six Qassam rockets strike Negev
Militants in the Gaza Strip fired six Qassam rockets toward the western Negev on Thursday, lightly wounding three Israelis.

One person was wounded by shrapnel when a rocket slammed into the yard of a house in the Negev town of Sderot Thursday evening. Earlier in the day, two people were lightly hurt and seven treated for shock when a rocket landed close to a house in the town, setting the building ablaze.

The IDF Home Front Command ordered the closure of most schools in the western Negev due to the rocket fire, Israel Radio reported. The orders permit classes to be held only in classrooms that are specially reinforced to protect against a rocket strike.

According to the IDF, 300 rockets have been fired at Israel from the town since the start of the year.

The IDF is expected to continue operating in Beit Hanun for several days, and was instructed Wednesday by the security cabinet to prepare for a large-scale operation in the Gaza Strip.

IDF Staff Sergeant Kiril Golenshein, 21, and eight Palestinians were killed Wednesday, the first day of the army's operation in Beit Hanun.