GAZA, July 14 (Xinhuanet) -- Palestinian interior minister Nasser Yousef on Thursday ordered the Palestinian security forces to use force against Palestinian militants that fire homemade rockets at Israeli targets. 

   "Instructions to the security forces are clear. They should carry out every firm needed measure including the use of force to prevent any action of firing rockets," Yousef told reporters in Gaza. 

   Yousef also declared a state of emergency on Thursday night and deployed police and security reinforcements all over the Gaza Strip, mainly in northern Gaza, to stop militants firing rockets. 

   Yousef gave the order after holding an urgent meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who arrived in Gaza on Thursday. The meeting was attended by chief of Palestinian police and security apparatuses. 

   The meeting came shortly after a homemade rocket fired by Palestinian militants in northern Gaza Strip killed a 20-year-old Israeli woman in Nativ Ha'asara, a collective farm north of Gaza Strip. 

   Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed ring of the ruling Fatah movement led by Abbas, claimed responsibility for the rocket attack. 

   Meanwhile, Palestinian security sources said that militants from Al-Qassam Brigades, the militant group Hamas's armed wing, exchanged fire with Palestinian security forces in northern Gaza Strip on Thursday night.

   The sources said that at least five people, three militants and two security officers, were injured in the clash, which took place after Palestinian security forces prevented militants from firing homemade rockets at Israel. 

   The sources said that Hamas militants set a post manned by the Palestinian security forces on fire. Enditem