Gaza City  - A 14-year-old Palestinian girl was killed and five people were wounded early Saturday in fighting between the Israeli army and Palestinian militants in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya, emergency officials and witnesses said.

After midnight, Israeli special forces entered al-Da'our neighbourhood, about 1.5 kilometres to the south of the security fence. The soldiers were supported by tanks and air cover.

Clashes erupted between the Israeli forces and members of armed Palestinian groups.

Sources close to the radical Islamic Hamas movement said the girl's father, whom the troops arrested, was a member of the group. The girl died when the Israeli forces shelled her father's house, witnesses said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman in Tel Aviv confirmed the incursion and two air attacks. (dpa)