Israel Defense Forces troops killed a Palestinian man early Thursday morning in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinians reported.

Hospital officials reported that the man, about 20 years old, was killed by machine gun fire from an Israeli tank unit near the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia. Another man was wounded, they said. The men's identity was not immediately clear. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.

The IDF said troops in the same area saw a figure they deemed suspicious and opened fire, but believed he had managed to escape unharmed. It
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was not immediately clear if this was the same incident in which the
Palestinian was killed.

An Israel Air Force aircraft attacked a money changer's office in
Gaza City late Wednesday night, hitting a power transformer and knocking out electricity in much of the city. There were no injuries in that incident.

The IDF has been carrying out incursions into northern Gaza over the past few months in an attempt to stop Palestinian rocket fire, so far without success. On Wednesday, after the death of an Israeli civilian in a rocket strike the day before, the security cabinet decided to intensify Israel's response to Qassams.

Militants in the Gaza Strap fired two Qassam rockets into the western Negev on Thursday morning. Both landed in open fields, causing no injuries or damages.

Two civilians killed by IDF Wednesday
IDF troops killed five Palestinians across the territories on Wednesday, including two civilians in the Gaza Strip.

Hospital officials said a Palestinian woman, 35, was killed by IDF shelling in an area of northern Gaza used by rocket crews, and that troops killed a 14-year-old boy in a nearby refugee camp.

Troops also killed a militant during battles in the West Bank town of Jenin, the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades said. The slain man was identified as Fadi Amoor, 26. Two other militants were wounded in the clashes, including a senior commander of the Islamic Jihad in the West Bank, Ashraf Saadi.

The IDF said only that troops in the city spotted two armed Palestinians and opened fire, hitting both of them.

Earlier, troops killed two Hamas gunman over the course of an operation in the northern Strip aimed at countering rocket fire. One of the militants, belonging to the ruling Hamas group, was killed in the Jabalya refugee camp as he prepared to fire a Qassam rocket at Israel. He was named as Sami Zubeida, 22.

IDF troops shot dead a second Hamas militant in Beit Lahia earlier in the day. He was later identified as Masab Abu Matouk, 22.

An IDF soldier was moderately wounded and an officer lightly wounded by an anti-tank missile during the raid in northern Gaza. At present, soldiers from the Givati Brigade and the Armored Corps are operating in the area.

Palestinian officials said that IDF troops besieged a well-known Hamas lawmaker's house in northern Gaza and were engaged in ferocious gunbattles with militants. The officials said IDF snipers had positioned themselves on more than a dozen rooftops in Beit Hanun and Jabalya as the ground troops fanned out.

Three teenage Palestinian girls were wounded by IDF fire outside a school in Beit Hanun, hospital and security officials said.

Seven Qassams hit Sderot day after fatal strike
Despite the ongoing operation, Palestinian militants in Gaza fired seven Qassam rockets into the western Negev on Wednesday, causing some damage but no injuries.

One of the Qassam rockets landed near a schoolyard in the western Negev city of Sderot minutes before classes were to begin. Several students were treated for shock as a result of the attack.

Another rocket caused damage to an agricultural structure in a western Negev community. Another two landed in open fields outside Sderot, causing no damage or injuries.

Yaakov Yaakobov, 43, was killed on Tuesday when a rocket came crashing through the roof of the poultry packing plant Off Kor, where he was working at the time. He was buried Wednesday afternoon in Sderot. Government representatives were asked to stay away from the funeral due to security threats.