Air raid kills two Hamas members

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Two members of the Palestinian militant group, Hamas, have been killed and another seriously wounded in an Israeli air strike on the Gaza Strip.

Six bystanders were also injured in the attack, on a car travelling through an eastern district of Gaza City.

More than 30 Palestinians have now been killed in nine successive days of Israeli air raids on the area.

The Israeli military says the strikes are in response to continued rocket attacks by militants on its territory.

Three Israelis were lightly wounded in the latest rocket attack by Hamas militants on Sderot on Friday.

An Israeli woman was killed by a rocket in the southern town on Monday.

Rocket attack

Following the air strike on Friday evening, the Israel army said the militants they killed had been on their way to fire more rockets at Israel.

Hamas' military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, confirmed three of its members had indeed been travelling north to carry out an attack.

Earlier, four more people were injured when missiles struck a Hamas building in the central Gaza Strip.

Another Israeli air strike hit a building in a refugee camp near the home of the Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya.

Israeli officials said he had not been the target of the attack.

Ceasefire calls

Meanwhile, representatives of the main Palestinian factions have been meeting in Gaza City to discuss calls for a unilateral truce by President Mahmoud Abbas.

"The next 48 hours will be decisive for determining which way the factions are going, and it will depend on Israel and whether it wants to stop its aggression," a spokesman for Mr Abbas's Fatah movement said.

A spokesman for Hamas denied any commitments had been made, but said his group would consider the proposal.

"Our position is that a ceasefire must be mutual, simultaneous and reciprocal and it must cover Gaza and the West Bank at the same time," Ayman Taha said.

"Despite our position, we have told [Mr Abbas] that we will study his offer and inform him of our response in the near future," he added.

However, the group also said it would not stop firing rockets until Israel stopped its military activities in both Gaza and the West Bank.