Israel kills five Palestinian gunmen

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA (Reuters) - Israel killed three Palestinian gunmen in air strikes in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and two in a raid in the occupied West Bank on Thursday, said Palestinian militants and hospital officials.

A total of 14 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces since a Hamas cross-border rocket attack killed an Israeli civilian on Wednesday, the first such death in the Jewish state in nine months.

Those killed in Thursday's air strikes on Gaza were a fighter from the Islamist Hamas movement and two from the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) armed group. An Israeli military spokeswoman said the air force had targeted gunmen.

In the West Bank, Israeli troops killed the two militants in a raid on the Balata refugee camp, a hospital official and local residents said. The Israeli army spokeswoman said troops opened fire after spotting armed men threatening them.

The killing of the Israeli in Sderot, a town near the border with Gaza, seemed certain to increase public pressure on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to order tougher military action in Gaza that might include a widescale ground operation.

"Southern Israel is continuously being hit by Palestinian rockets and mortars and this cannot and will not continue," said David Baker, a spokesman for Olmert.

The violence between Israel and militants in Gaza could complicate peace talks between Olmert's government and President Mahmoud Abbas's Palestinian Authority that the United States hopes can lead to a deal on Palestinian statehood this year.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to visit the region next week. She and U.S. President George W. Bush are racing against time to conclude a deal before Bush leaves office in January.