Gaza City  - Israel carried out a fresh airstrike in the Gaza Strip on Thursday morning, the second air attack in some 12 hours, killing two Palestinians, health officials said.

Gaza emergency services chief Mo'aweya Hassanein said an Israeli pilotless drone fired one missile at a group of Palestinians east of the al-Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip, near the border with Israel.

There were no other injuries, said Hassanein, who could not say whether the two fatalities were militants or civilians. Witnesses said they were militants, however.

An Israeli army spokesman confirmed the airstrike, saying the target was a group of militants who had fired an anti-tank missile at an Israeli army patrol on the Israeli side of the border. An Israeli army force crossed into the strip and guided aircraft, which fired at the squad, he said.

Thursday's strike followed that of Wednesday evening when a senior Islamic Jihad commander was killed while in a car driving in northern Gaza. Health officials initially spoke of two dead, but later corrected the death toll to one. Five others were wounded.

The Israeli military said Khaled Shalan was a senior member of the rocket-launching branch in the al-Quds Brigades, the Jihad's armed wing. He was in charge mainly of longer-range rockets, the spokesman said.

The Islamic Jihad issued a statement vowing to avenge his death. One rocket landed in a southern Israeli field near the strip Thursday morning.

Militants in Gaza have fired more than 130 rockets and mortar shells at Israel since it ended a deadly and devastating 22-day offensive in the strip last month, aimed at curbing such attacks. (dpa)