GAZA CITY, 1 July 2007 — Two civilians were among six Palestinians killed in two Israeli airstrikes in Gaza yesterday, as Hamas vowed to resist any international peacekeeping force in the embattled territory.

An Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at a moving vehicle in the center of the southern town of Khan Younis, killing a senior commander and two other members of the Islamic Jihad group and wounding four bystanders, security sources said.

A second strike on the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza Strip killed Salah Qufa, 46, his 23-year-old son Iyad and a 40-year-old civilian, and injured two people, the sources said.

Salah Qufa was identified as a member of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades.

Islamic Jihad confirmed the three men belonged to its armed wing after initial confusion over their affiliation. The three men’s bodies were badly disfigured, medical officials said, making identification difficult. Abu Ahmed, an Islamic Jihad spokesman, said one of the dead men, Ziad Ghanam, was the group’s top leader in southern Gaza.

“This will not affect Islamic Jihad,” he said of the air attack. “We continue our path of resistance until martyrdom or victory.” Islamic Jihad has taken the lead on military activity against Israel as Hamas struggles to consolidate its hold on Gaza.

Rocket fire and attacks on Israel have diminished significantly since the Hamas takeover, but Israel has said it would continue to go after fighters.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, meanwhile, fired four rockets in 24 hours into southern Israel, causing damage to a house in the town of Sderot and one in the nearby Kibbutz Nir-Am, the army said.

On Wednesday, 11 Palestinians were killed and more than 40 wounded in an extensive Israeli ground incursion in southern and northern Gaza, in what was the deadliest violence since the Islamists of Hamas seized Gaza on June 15.

The United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees said on Friday that the current aid flowing into Gaza is not enough to prevent a dire humanitarian crisis.

Meanwhile, Hamas rejected Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ call for the deployment of international troops in the Gaza Strip, vowing yesterday to attack them like other “occupation forces.” Abbas dismissed a Hamas-led unity government and formed his own administration in the occupied West Bank after the Islamist group’s violent takeover of the Gaza Strip two weeks ago.

Abbas, who also leads the Fatah faction, told French President Nicolas Sarkozy during a visit to Paris on Friday that he wanted international peacekeepers to deploy in Gaza in order to ensure free elections can be held there.

“An international force is not acceptable to us,” said Ismail Haniyeh, prime minister of the Hamas-led government dismissed by Abbas. “We are under (Israeli) occupation and we do not need more forces that will put more pressure on the Palestinian people.” Hamas’ armed wing, the Ezzedine Al-Qassam Brigades, threatened to attack international troops.

“We will not allow any foreign forces to set foot in the Gaza Strip and we will deal with them as occupation forces,” Qassam Brigades said. “We will only receive these forces with shells and rockets.” Qassam Brigades said it believed Abbas only supported the deployment of international troops to undercut the group’s control over the Gaza Strip.

Israel, the European Union and the United Nations have all said they would be open to consider an international force for the Gaza Strip.

But Israeli officials and Western diplomats doubt major powers will agree to send forces into Gaza with a mandate to act against fighters, as demanded by Israel. Israel had long resisted Palestinian calls for international peacekeepers in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, saying their deployment would interfere with Israeli security measures.

But Israel signaled flexibility after last year’s Lebanon war, which ended with a boosted UNIFIL (United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon) peacekeeper force in former Hezbollah strongholds.

— With input from agencies