Israel presses ahead with its Gaza attacks

Five Palestinians were wounded in an Israeli air strike on a house belonging to a member of the ruling Islamist Hamas movement, security officials said.

The Israeli army told the owner by telephone an hour before the strike that his home would be targeted, security officials said.

Another air strike destroyed a house belonging to a member of the Popular Resistance Committees in Beit Hanoun in the northern Gaza Strip. He was also notified of the impending strike beforehand, and no injuries were reported.

An army spokesman said the Gaza City raid was aimed at a "Hamas centre" and the Beit Hanoun raid targeted a weapons storage site.

Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees are two of the three Palestinian militant groups that said they captured Corporal Gilad Shalit in a deadly June 25 cross-border raid.

The raid, which killed two other soldiers, sparked a massive Israeli offensive in Gaza for the first time since it withdrew in 2005 after a 38-year occupation.

According to an AFP count at least 147 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier have been killed since the attacks against Gaza began last month.