Gunmen shot dead a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades - a militant faction of the Fatah party - in the northern Gaza Strip early Friday.

A Fatah spokesman said that the man was killed by Hamas militants.

A Hamas security officer was killed Thursday, and five others were wounded in an explosion in the northern Gaza Strip.

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No one claimed responsibility for the attack.

Hamas sources accused Fatah of carrying out the bombing, although Fatah sources denied involvment, saying that a bomb in the Hamas men's possession accidentally exploded.

Hamas spokesman Islam Shahwan said the blast was detonated while a jeep carrying six members of a Hamas-led security force passed by. "We have uncovered the wire used in detonating the bomb," he said.

Earlier Thursday, a local commander of the Islamic Jihad militant group died during an Israel Defense Forces operation in the West Bank town of Tul Karm, according to group sources.

IDF troops shot Fadel Balawneh after surrounding his home, members of Islamic Jihad said. Balawneh then fell from a second-story window and broke his neck, they said.

It was not immediately clear if Balawneh died from the bullet wounds or the fall.

The IDF had no immediate comment.

Also Thursday, the police's special anti-terror unit Yamam arrested Amur Damra, an explosives belt engineer and militant belonging to the Fatah-aligned Tanzim movement.

Damra was an assistant to Mahmoud Ramaha, who was killed by Yamam fire in early December.

According to the Shin Bet Security Service, Damra was involved in an attempt to dispatch a suicide bomber from the Nablus area.

On Wednesday, IDF troops shot dead a Palestinian and arrested two others trying to sneak into Israel from the Gaza Strip, the army said.

Both attempted infiltrators, 15-year-olds, were later freed, and hospitalized in stable condition, Palestinian officials said.

Palestinian security officials in Gaza said Israel had informed them of the incident and that the three had apparently been manual laborers trying to slip into Israel to find work.