JERUSALEM - The Israeli military killed two Palestinians in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip on Tuesday, one in an airstrike and another as he approached the Gaza border, Israeli and Palestinian officials said. The military said its aircraft struck five targets in retaliation for Palestinian rocket fire on southern Israel Monday that exploded in the city of Beersheba. It said aircraft hit a group of armed men preparing to launch a rocket attack on Israel. Gaza Health Ministry spokesman Adham Abu Salmia said one militant was killed and four people wounded in the Israeli strikes - three militants and a 5-year-old boy. Late Tuesday, Israeli soldiers also shot a Palestinian when he approached the border that separates Gaza and Israel. An Israeli military spokesman said the man had entered a no-go zone where "militants frequently set explosive devices or ambush soldiers on patrol nearby." Abu Salmia said medics "retrieved the body riddled with bullet holes." It was not immediately clear whether the man was armed or belonged to any militant group. The border between Israel and Gaza has been mostly quiet since an Israeli military offensive in the winter of 2008 aimed at stopping almost daily Palestinian rocket fire at Israeli communities. Violence continues sporadically since then along the border and Palestinians continue to launch mortars and rockets at Israel, but to a much lesser degree.
