Israeli troops kill Hamas gunman in Gaza raid

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli troops killed a Hamas gunman during a raid on the northern Gaza Strip on Monday, the ruling Palestinian faction and hospital officials said.

An Israeli military spokeswoman confirmed an operation had taken place near Beit Hanoun, a border town frequently used by Palestinian factions to launch rockets into the Jewish state.

Israeli forces shot two gunmen who tried to attack them and detained more than 30 Palestinians for questioning before withdrawing, the military spokeswoman said.

Palestinian hospital officials said the body of a Hamas gunman had been retrieved from the scene of the fighting. He had been hit by a tank shell, they said.

Three militants were wounded in a later air strike near the border fence in the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian hospital staff and the army said.

Israel, which pulled troops and settlers out of Gaza in 2005, regularly launches raids which it says target militants responsible for cross-border rocket fire and other attacks.

A young Israeli boy was wounded by fragmentation from a rocket which exploded near his family's car in a town near the border fence, the army said . He was treated for a shoulder injury in hospital, according to an ambulance service spokesman.

The Islamic Jihad militant group claimed responsibility for launching the rockets.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, Writing by Dan Williams and Ori Lewis; Editing by Charles Dick)