14-year-old Maysa Reziq, is treated after she was wounded during the Israeli incursion (See more pictures)

Additional Reporting By Mustafa El-Sawwaf, IOL Correspondent

GAZA CITY , July 8 (IslamOnline.net) – Israeli occupation troops backed by helicopters and armored bulldozers killed at least 8 Palestinians, including the local commander of the Hamas resistance group, and injured many others in two separate incursions of the Gaza Strip on Thursday, July 8.

In the north of the strip, Israeli forces killed at least six Palestinians in the fiercest clashes since the army invaded the area 10 days ago, Reuters reported.

The Israeli military and a Palestinian witness said four of the dead were activists.

A local resident who rushed out of his home to help Palestinian fighters was killed by army gunfire, and a woman watching the clashes from her doorstep were also killed, witnesses said.

The clashes took place in Gaza 's densely populated Beit Hanoun area, where armored Israeli forces have pushed into since a child and an adult were killed by a makeshift rocket fired at the Israeli border town of Sderot on June 28.

The armed wing of Hamas said its leader in Beit Hanoun was killed in the clashes with the occupation forces.

Nahed Abu Ouda was a member of the first armed cell of the Qassam Brigades before his detention by the Israeli army for six years beginning in 1998, the group said in a statement obtained by IslamOnline.net.

In addition, two members of the Fatah military wing were also killed by the Israeli fire during the incursion.

The Qassam Brigades statement said that at least one Israeli soldier was killed and two others injured in the clashes.

Eyewitnesses told IOL that fierce clashes broke out in the area between the resistance fighters and Israeli soldiers, who laid siege to a number of houses and opened fire under the cover of the US-made Apache helicopter gunships.

They said the Israeli soldiers also demolished a number of houses and still seal off the northeastern areas of the strip for ten days now.

Separate Sweep

The incursion triggered fierce clashes in Beit Hanoun (AFP)

Meanwhile, Israeli troops backed by tanks and helicopters also swept into part of Khan Younis refugee camp in the south of Gaza overnight and bulldozed several buildings.

Resistance fighters faced up to the invading forces, who withdrew from the area after demolishing 30 houses.

At least five Palestinians were injured in the Israeli strikes, during which Apaches, artillery and machine guns were used, medical sources said.

The Israeli Radio said at least two soldiers were wounded during exchanges of fire before the pullout.

The Qassam Brigades said its members detonated bomb explosives, which destroyed three vehicles.

On July 3, four Palestinians were killed and several others injured Friday, July 2, in an Israeli raid into the Gaza Strip, while Israeli bulldozers went on reducing Palestinian homes to rubble in Rafah, in the south of the strip.

The Israeli raid into Rafah in May claimed the lives of up to 62 Palestinians, flattened 155 homes and drove some 2000 residents homeless.