GAZA CITY, March 6 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Two more Palestinians were killed early Wednesday by the Israeli occupation army, bringing the number killed in overnight Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip to five, Palestinian medical sources said, news agencies reported.

The sources said Abdel Jhani Abu Daqa, 32, died after being shot in the back following an Israeli occupation army incursion at Abassan, near Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Another Palestinian, who had not yet been identified, had been found dead on the beach at Beit Lahia in the north of the Gaza Strip.

Security and medical sources said he had been shot as Israeli marines targeted a Palestinian security post and buildings belonging to the Palestinian marine during a night of overnight attacks in the Gaza Strip.

Abu Daqa was the third to die in the Abassan incursion. Earlier medical sources said Jamal Abu Hammad, 28, was shot in the abdomen and a Palestinian woman, Moufida Abu Daqa, 48, was shot in the head, there. Both died after being taken to hospital.

Earlier a Palestinian policeman died of his injuries after being hit by a rocket fired by Israeli Marines, medical sources said.

Majdi al-Sabagh, 28, was injured when the rocket hit the vehicle in which he and other police officers were traveling in the heights of the northern town of Beit Lahia in the Gaza Strip. He later died in hospital.

Three other Palestinian policemen were injured in the attack.

Two Israeli occupation soldiers were also killed early Wednesday during confrontations with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, Israeli military sources said.

They said the two soldiers died in fighting during an overnight Israeli occupation army incursion at Abassan, near Khan Yunis in the south of the Gaza Strip.

The new Israeli attacks come after a new day of violence Tuesday in which at least a dozen Palestinians were killed by occupation forces despite efforts to stem the escalating violence in the 17-month conflict.

Palestinian sources said Tuesday evening that an Israeli Apache helicopter missile attack on a car killed three Palestinians in the West Bank town of Bituniya, west of Ramallah. It is possible that a fourth man traveling in the car was hit in the attack.

The sources said that the men killed were Muhand Dirya Abu Halawa, an aide to Tanzim leader Marwan Barghouti, Omar Kaidan, the body guard of the head of the Force 17 presidential guard in Ramallah Mahmoud Damara (Abu Awad) and Muhammad Fawzi Murar, a member of Force 17. Israeli helicopters also attacked Palestinian targets Tuesday evening in Ramallah and Tulkarem, and in the Gaza Strip.

Missiles were fired at the main Palestinian security compound in Gaza City, witnesses said. The missiles hit the Ansar-2 facility near the office of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat.
 
Five Israelis were also killed in three separate attacks Tuesday morning and at least one Palestinian security member was killed when Israeli occupation forces stormed into a West Bank village near Hebron.

In addition, Israeli planes and helicopters carried out air strikes on various Palestinian targets in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. In the afternoon, Israeli Apache helicopters carried out air raids on Palestinian command centers in Nablus and Ramallah.

The heavy-handed Israeli incursions, backed by tanks, helicopter gunships and bulldozers, came after the Israeli security cabinet vowed late Sunday to turn up the military pressure on the Palestinian authority after the weekend retaliatory killing of 22 of its citizens.