Five Palestinians killed in airstrikes

Updated 13.20 Thu Feb 28 2008

Keywords: Israel, Palestinian, Gaza

Israeli forces have killed five more Palestinians in air strikes - three in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and two in a raid in the West Bank.

Israeli forces have now killed 16 people in Gaza since a Hamas cross-border rocket attack killed an Israeli civilian on Wednesday.

Sixteen Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces since a Hamas cross-border rocket attack killed an Israeli civilian on Wednesday

An Israeli military spokesman said the air force had deliberately targeted gunmen and that those killed in the recent airstrikes included a fighter from the Islamist Hamas movement and two from the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) armed group.

The killing of the Israeli civilian - which happened in Sderot, a town near the border of Gaza - is likely to increase public pressure on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to order tougher military action in Gaza.

A spokesman for Mr Olmert said: "Southern Israel is continuously being hit by Palestinian rockets and mortars and this cannot and will not continue."

The violence between Israel and militants in Gaza is likely to complicate peace talks which the US had hoped would lead to a deal on a Palestinian statehood this year.

George W. Bush and US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice are racing to conclude a deal before the president leaves office in January.