A senior member of Islamic Jihad has died following this morning' s Israeli helicopter attack in which a 12-year-old boy also died.
The attack on a car carrying Aziz al-Shami, a bodyguard and relative of Islamic Jihad leader Abdallah al-Shami, took place in a crowded street in Gaza.
At least ten people were injured, three of them critically, and Mr al-Shami died several hours later in hospital.
The Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie has called the strike "an attempt to escalate the situation". "This cowardly aggression is condemned and rejected," Qurie told reporters in the West Bank
city of Ramallah.
"They were trying to hit our people's resistance and they failed to do that. Our people will not stop this resistance and fighting and Jihad until the occupation will end and leave our land," said Khaled al-Batash, an Islamic Jihad official.
The army helicopter fired a missile into the car killing the boy and wounding three others. The dead boy was named as Tarek Sousi.
Israel has assasinated scores of alleged Palestinian militants in missile attacks on their cars since the Palestinian uprising began in September 2000. The strikes have been widely condemned by the international community.