The commander of the Popular Resistance Committees in the northern Gaza Strip was killed Thursday along with his deputy in an Israel Air Force strike.

Faik Abu al-Kamsan and Mahmoud al-Basiyouni were killed when a missile fired by an IAF aircraft hit their car in the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza.

A third man, who has yet to be identified, was also killed in the strike.

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The Israel Defense Forces said there were secondary explosions in the militants' car, indicating the presence of ordnance in the vehicle.

According to the IDF, the militants were involved in the firing of Qassam rockets at Israel, as well as the firing of anti-tank missiles at IDF troops.

Earlier Thursday, a 57-year-old female suicide bomber blew herself up Thursday next to IDF troops operating near the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahia, lightly wounding three soldiers.

A total of eight Qassam rockets were fired into Israel Thursday.

One rocket, which landed in Kibbutz Zikim, caused some damage to an equipment storehouse.

Hamas claimed responsibility for the suicide bombing, identifying the bomber as Fatma Omar A-Najar of Jabalya refugee camp.

The bomber's oldest daughter, Fatheya, explained the motives of the bomber, who appears to be the oldest female suicide bomber to date.

"They [the Israelis] destroyed her house, they killed her grandson - my son. Another grandson is in a wheelchair with an amputated leg," she said. "She and I, we went to the mosque. We were looking for martyrdom."

Troops noticed Najar approaching them and realized she was a suicide bomber. The troops threw a stun grenade at the bomber and she blew herself up.

Six Palestinians were killed, not including the suicide bomber, and five IDF troops were lightly hurt Thursday in the Gaza Strip.

IDF troops killed two Palestinian militants in the morning during raids in the northern Strip.

Two soldiers were lightly wounded by anti-tank missiles in separate incidents in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanun, where soldiers are operating in an effort to halt the rocket fire that has killed two people and wounded several others in Sderot in the past week.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Thursday escorted foreign diplomats on a tour of Sderot in order to illustrate the rocket-battered town's proximity to the Gaza Strip, and to highlight the fact that Beit Hanun, from which most of the Qassam rockets are launched, has a high civilian population.

During the trip, the diplomats visited a local high school, where they heard stories of the students' experiences in the face of the rocket fire. The delegation also visited vantage points from which Beit Hanun was clearly visible.

Three other Palestinians were killed in clashes Thursday. A Hamas militant, Mohammed al-Jarjawi, was killed Thursday morning in an IAF strike on a group of Hamas militants near Beit Lahia. Another militant was wounded in the attack.

22-year-old Ala Halil was killed during exchanges of fire in the northern Strip. There were no additional details on the circumstances of his death or whether he belonged to a militant organization.

Early Thursday evening 19-year-old Islamic Jihad militant Nasser a-Nader was killed near Beit Lahia. The IDF said troops fired on a group of Palestinians who were preparing to fire a Qassam rocket. Palestinians said Nader was killed by an army sniper.

The IDF has been carrying out incursions into northern Gaza over the past few months in an attempt to stop Palestinian rocket fire. 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 Strip fired four Qassam rockets into the western Negev on Thursday morning. Two of them landed in open fields, causing no injuries or damages. Another one hit a field near the Sderot cemetery, and the fourth landed near a western Negev community.

Four additional rockets landed in Israel in the afternoon and evening, one hitting near a western Negev kibbutz Thursday evening, another at a Sderot cemetery, a third at Kibbutz Zikim near Ashkelon, and a fourth in an open field.

Islamic Jihad: Longer-range rocket to be operational soon
Islamic Jihad announced Thursday that a longer-range rocket it is developing would soon be operational, but did not say when.

Abu Hamza, a spokesman for the militant group, said the rocket was based on the Russian-made Katyusha, which Lebanese guerrillas fired at northern Israel during this summer's war.

The rocket has a range of 18 to 20 kilometers - about double the range of anything the militants have yet developed.

In March, the group said it had "many" Russian-made rockets with a 19 to 30-kilometer range, smuggled into Gaza from Egypt.

Islamic Jihad fired several of these rockets into Israel, but the IDF said at the time that they only traveled three or four kilometers into Israel.

Also Thursday, Police Special Unit officers arrested four Palestinian militants in the West Bank city of Jenin found in possession of two Kalashnikov rifles, an M-16 and flak jackets.