Israeli air strike kills 3 children

The Israeli military has killed three Palestinian children, two of them siblings, in an air strike on the Gaza Strip.

The attack come after the Israeli Defence Minister pledged to step up military action against cross-border rocket salvoes.

Witnesses say aircraft fired at least one missile at a car carrying al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades militants in Gaza City.

The occupants managed to leap free but a seven-year-old girl and her five-year-old brother, who were nearby, have been killed.

A 16-year-old has also died.

Nine bystanders, most of them minors, are wounded.

Rocket attacks

Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz, under pressure from residents of border towns that have been targeted by Gazan rocket crews, had promised new military counter-measures "within a matter of dozens of hours" but did not elaborate.

Israel Radio, quoting witnesses, reported armoured units massing outside northern Gaza.

There have been no major Israeli ground operations in Gaza since Israel quit the strip last year after 38 years of occupation in a bid to defuse conflict.

The air strike comes hours after Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, trying to salvage peacemaking with Israel despite opposition from the new Islamic Hamas Government, urged an end to the rocket fire.

"The President holds any faction that violates the calm fully responsible for any sabotage, destruction and victims that befall our people as a result of the imminent Israeli aggression," Mr Abbas's office said in a statement.

An Israeli Army spokesman says the air strike had targeted militants wanted for attacks on Israel.

The spokesman has expressed regret over any civilian casualties but says responsibility lies with the Palestinians for failing to stop the rocket salvoes.

- Reuters