GAZA CITY- A fourth Palestinian was killed by Israeli troops in the Rafah region of the southern Gaza Strip overnight, Palestinian hospital officials said Thursday.
Three Palestinians had been killed around midnight while the body of the fourth was recovered at daybreak, the sources said.
Israeli military officials said Israeli soldiers opened fire and hit at least two people after spotting a group "apparently" carrying weapons close to the Egyptian border.
Meanwhile, the wanted leader of a Palestinian militant group and two of his lieutenants survived an Israeli assassination bid Thursday after an air strike targetted their vehicle in the southern Gaza Strip.
An unmanned plane fired a rocket at the white-coloured vehicle which was carrying three members of the militant Popular Resistance Committees, close to the Sufa border crossing into Israel, witnesses said.
A spokesman for Popular Resistance Committees said the strike in the Rafah region had targetted the radical group's leader.
"The Israeli army tried to assassinate Jamal Abu Samhadana, the general commander of the Popular Resistance Committees. He is injured but not seriously," spokesman Abu Abir said, saying the drone had fired one rocket.
The other two casualties also belonged to the group, an umbrella militant faction loosely linked to the dominant Palestinian Fatah faction, the spokesman said. Their condition was also not thought to be life-threatening.
Abu Samhadana also survived an apparent assassination attempt on August 5 when an explosion went off in the path of his car.
The Israeli military confirmed the air strike, saying its target had been behind a number of attacks.
"During a security forces operation this morning in the southern Gaza Strip, the IAF (Israeli Air Force) struck the vehicle of a senior Popular Resistance Committees operative," a statement said. "The senior operative was responsible for numerous terrorist attacks."
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had pledged on Wednesday that Israel would "maintain the calm" in the absence of attacks by Palestinian militants while ruling out a formal ceasefire agreement.
However, he said Israel would reserve the right to attack what he called "ticking bombs", referring to militants who are about to carry out imminent attacks.
The army spokesman's office would not confirm whether the occupants of the vehicle were regarded as ticking bombs.
Israel has assassinated a number of leading militants in Gaza this year, including two heads of the Islamist movement Hamas, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Abdelaziz Rantissi, who were both killed in air strikes.
Sharon is aware that offensive operations would undermine ongoing efforts by the new moderate PLO chairman Mahmud Abbas to persuade armed factions to halt their campaign of anti-Israeli attacks.
Nabil Abu Rudeina, a spokesman for the Palestinian Authority, said the air strike would only serve to undermine the efforts to install calm.
"Israel's return to a policy of assassinations will put obstacles in front of all the efforts that are being made to put the peace process back on track," Abu Rudeina said.
"This assassination attempt will destroy all efforts to calm the situation," he added.
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