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Special report: Israel launches Gaza assault

GAZA, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- Palestinian security officials said on Monday night that the Israeli army announced that it had ended its Autumn Clouds military operation into northern Gaza Strip that started on Wednesday morning.

Palestinian witnesses in northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun said they saw tanks and armored vehicles moving out of the town, adding that the number of Israeli army vehicles were reduced as well.

Meanwhile, Palestinian hospital sources said on Monday evening that bodies of two militants were found near Gaza-Israel border in eastern Gaza Strip while the Israeli military operation continued.

The two militants were shot dead by the Israeli army in early morning, and the Palestinians only confirmed their death after the Israeli army allowed Palestinian ambulances to the area.

In the Autumn Clouds military operation, the biggest since Israel pulled out from Gaza and focused in northern Gaza, tanks and bulldozers, backed by helicopter gunships, rolled into Beit Hanoun and Palestinian communities near the borders in northern Gaza.

At least 56 Palestinians have so far been killed in the operation, which, starting on Wednesday last week, was part of an offensive unleashed in June following the capture of an Israeli soldier by Palestinian militant groups.

The captors holding the Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit hostage in Gaza had threatened to kill Shalit if the Jewish state kept on striking the Palestinian territories.

Israeli officials had declared that the operation was aiming at halting Qassam rocket fire on southern Israel.

GAZA, Nov. 6 (Xinhua) -- An Israeli drone plane fired on Mondaya missile at a Palestinian militant in northeastern Gaza City, killing him immediately, witnesses and paramedics said.

Witnesses said the slain was Mohammed Taha, 30, who is a member of the Hamas' military wing.

Earlier in the morning, a Palestinian teenager was also killed and five others were wounded in a Israeli air strike on the northern Gaza Strip, medics and witnesses reported.

Israeli airstrike kills Islamic Jihad militant in northern Gaza

GAZA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- One Islamic Jihad (Holy War) militant was killed and another senior militant survived on Sunday night after their car was hit by an Israeli aircraft rocket in northern Gaza Strip, witnesses and medics said.

    Witnesses said Sheikh Abu Sa'eed Sheikh Khalil, a senior Islamic Jihad militant and his assistant were inside a car that drove near Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza Strip.

    Palestinian militants threaten to kill Israeli hostage if offensive on Gaza continues

GAZA, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) -- Three Palestinian military groups, taking an Israeli soldier hostage in Gaza, on Sunday threatened to kill the hostage if Israel does not stop a large-scale operation in the northern Gaza Strip.

"We would tell the state of occupation that if it continues with its crimes against our people in Beit Hanoun and the entire Gaza Strip, the life of the captive soldier would be in danger," a masked spokesmen for the captors read the warning in a news conference held in Gaza on Sunday afternoon.