GAZA CITY, January 12 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Israel killed two Palestinian teenager on Sunday, January 12, in a failed assassination attempt against two members of the Islamic resistance Hamas, on the same day 8 other Palestinians were killed by the Israeli army.

Two teenage Palestinian bystanders, one of them in a wheelchair, where killed when a missile fired by an Israeli helicopter missed a taxi carrying three Palestinians, including two members of the military wing of the resistance Hamas group, witnesses in Khan Yunis said.

The three managed to escape before two more missiles destroyed their vehicle, Agence France-Presse (AFP) said.

The Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades confirmed in a statement that two of their leaders had narrowly escaped the missile attack and promised their group would retaliate.

According to witnesses, a group of Palestinians spontaneously gathered and called for revenge outside a hospital south of Khan Yunis where some of the wounded from the day's Israeli attacks were being treated.

The Israeli army refused to publicly comment on whether the botched missile attack was one of its patented "targeted killings" that have drawn wide international condemnation as they often cause heavy civilian casualties.

The attack came hours after the Israeli army raided Khan Yunis with dozens of armored vehicles backed helicopters, in what Palestinian security sources described as the largest incursion into the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the Intifada against the Israeli occupation 27 months ago.

One Palestinian was killed in the incursion, 18 wounded, and several houses and workshops destroyed, they said.

The army claimed the workshops were used by militants to manufacture rockets and other weapons. Despite the raid, three Qassam rockets manufactured and named after Hamas's armed wing hit the southern Israeli town of Sderot later Sunday but caused no serious injuries.

The Israeli army also staged an overnight incursion into Beit Hanun, which left another Palestinian dead, Palestinian security sources said.

Further south, Israeli troops killed two members of an armed commando unit which had carried out a rare infiltration into the southern Negev desert from Egypt, military sources said, adding a manhunt had been launched for those who managed to escape into Israeli territory, AFP said.

Private television reported that an Israeli was also killed in the clashes, without specifying whether the victim was a soldier.

The identities of the attackers were also unknown.

Palestinian gunmen also attacked the Israeli farming community of Gadish, just a few miles from the northern West Bank city of Jenin, killing one Israeli civilian, before two of the gunmen were killed.

Israeli television said one of them was crushed by an army jeep while soldiers shot the other man down.

The Islamic resistance Jihad movement claimed responsibility for the shooting, AFP said.  

Islamic Jihad claimed the gun rampage in a phone call to AFP and identified the attackers as Hani Zakarna, 18, and Rabia Zakarna, 19, from the village of Qabatiya in the northern West Bank near Jenin.

The farming community of Gadish is only 10 kilometres (6 miles) north of the city of Jenin.

Three members of the Israeli security forces were also wounded in the ensuing gunfight, medical sources said.

Jenin was raided by dozens of Israeli armored vehicles early Sunday, in one of the army's almost daily incursions.

In another incident Sunday, a Palestinian who opened fire on a tanker delivering gas to Jewish settlements in the southern West Bank region of Hebron was shot dead by security guards escorting the tanker.

The deaths brings to 2,853 the number of people killed since the beginning of the intifada against the Israeli occupation in September 2000, three quarters of them Palestinians.

Palestinians have accused Sharon of escalating his military incursions against them in order to boost his electoral fortunes, which have suffered from various corruption accusations.

"These operations were an attempt by the Israeli government to escape corruption accusations and influence the Israeli electoral campaign by perpetrating more killings, destruction and state terrorism in the territories," top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.

For his part, the premier ripped Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for issuing a call for restraint ahead of the Israeli legislative vote on January 28, accusing Arafat of being motivated purely by political concerns.