GAZA CITY, October 27, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – While three Palestinian groups reiterated commitment to the shaky truce, Israeli forces killed at least seven Palestinians, including five civilians, on Thursday, October 27, in a new air strike in northern Gaza.

An Israeli drone fired three missiles into a white Subaru traveling between Jabaliya refugee camp and Beit Lahiya just north of Gaza City, hospital and security sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The strike killed Shaadi Muhanna and Mohammed Qandeel, two members of Al-Quds Brigade, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad resistance group.

The other five victims are believed to be civilian bystanders with no connection to activists, security sources said.

Medical sources said 13 people were injured in the blast, including at least two in life-threatening condition.

Four Palestinian groups reiterated earlier Thursday abidance by the truce with Israel.

During a press conference in Gaza City, Al-Quds Brigade, Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, and Fatah's Al-Aqsa Brigades reserved the right to retaliate any Israeli aggression or assassination.

The Gaza strike came less than 24 hours after an attack, claimed by the Islamic Jihad, killed five Israelis in the northern town of Hadera.

Al-Quds Brigade said the attack was in retaliation to Israel's assassination of its West Bank military commander, Louai Saadi, earlier this week.

The fresh Israeli aggression resounds an earlier incursion into the West Bank's city of Jenin where Abdel-Haleem Ezzedine, an Islamic Jihad leader, was detained after a shootout with Palestinian resistance activists.

Palestinian security sources said around 40 jeeps and tanks had moved into Jenin and surrounded houses as shooting rang out.

Two Apache helicopters could be seen circling overhead.

Around a dozen Palestinians, including Jihad members, were detained overnight by Israeli troops while the Israeli air force carried out three air strikes over Gaza without causing casualties.

The father of Hassan Abu Zeid, the Islamic Jihad activist who carried out the Hadera bombing attack, was detained earlier in the day in another incursion by the Israeli occupation troops.

On Tuesday, October 25, at least five Palestinians were critically injured, including a toddler and three women, when Israeli warplanes launched fresh missile strikes on the Gaza Strip.

Palestinians mourn their friends and loved ones killed in the Israeli strike. (Reuters)

The Israeli occupation army confirmed the new Gaza air strike, saying the attack targeted a vehicle of a senior Islamic Jihad "terrorist who was responsible for several murderous terror attacks".

Israeli security sources said Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has given the green light for the resumption of "targeted killing" operations against Islamic Jihad leaders.

"Our activity will be wide-ranging and continuous until we have brought about the cessation of terrorism," Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told a press conference Thursday.

A source closed to Sharon told AFP Israel will "use every means possible in our offensive, including targeted operations".

The Israeli occupation army has announced a general closure of the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak stressed that Israel needed to help Abu Mazen for the two parties' good.

"The fact that there are no meetings with Abu Mazen is liable to be interpreted as if he were being punished, and this is bad," he told the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth out Thursday.

"The Palestinians must be given a sense that something good is about to happen in their lives, they must be given hope," said the Egyptian leader.

"When the Palestinians have more normal daily lives, they will not allow terror to rampage."

Mubarak stressed that progress in the peace process must not be "contingent on confiscating weapons" from Palestinian resistance factions.

"If you try and force them to do this, this will cause a civil war to break out.

"First of all, calm must be achieved and an atmosphere of peace created so that people will have a reason to repel terror. And then we will deal with the issue of weapons and confiscate them."

During the Israeli minister's one-day visit, Israel and Egypt reached an agreement on the sensitive issue of access for civilians and merchandise in and out of the Gaza Strip.

James Wolfensohn, the envoy of the Mideast Quartet Committee, told the UN, US, EU and Russia in a recent letter that Israel was dragging its foot on opening Gaza Strip border crossings following its withdrawal.