Gaza City  - Two Islamic Hamas movement militants were killed Wednesday night in an Israeli airstrike near the Jewish state's border with eastern Gaza City, witnesses and medics said.

The witnesses said that an Israeli aircraft fired one missile into a group of militants guarding the border. Two militants were killed in the large blast.

Mo'aweya Hassanein, chief of emergency and ambulance services in Gaza's Hamas-run Health Ministry, told reporters that two Palestinians were killed in the latest airstrike on eastern Gaza City.

Earlier Wednesday, four Palestinians including three militants and a school-aged teen were killed and nine people were wounded in a series of Israeli airstrikes and incursions into the southern and northern Gaza Strip.

The general command of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine claimed responsibility Wednesday for launching a Russian- made Grad missile from northern Gaza at the Israeli costal town of Ashkelon.

Both Islamic Jihad and the Popular Resistance Committees denied responsibility for launching the rocket, which hit an Israeli shopping centre in Ashkelon. Israeli radio reported that at least 30 Israelis were wounded. (dpa)