GAZA, Dec. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, security sources said.

    The two were killed when Israeli warplanes fired missiles at a house and caused an explosion. Several others were also wounded, they added.

    The killed ones were believed to belong to the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, an armed offshoot of the ruling Fatah movement led by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas.

    One Palestinian was killed and eight wounded in an Israeli air strike Wednesday night in the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, Palestinian security sources and medics said.

    The killed one was identified as a member of the Popular Resistance Committees, a small violent militant group, security sources said.

    The air strikes came after a Palestinian suicide bomber from the Islamic Jihad (Holy War), another radical militant group sworn to Israel's destruction, killed five Israelis and wounded over 50 others in the Israeli coastal city of Netanya on Monday.

    Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has ordered the army to take harsh measures to strike back, including the resumption of targeted killings of Palestinian militants. Enditem