Israeli strikes in a continuing Gaza offensive killed seven militants Saturday, as well as 12-year-old girl and two other civilians in separate incidents.

Palestinian officials said the girl was shot in the head and killed by an Israeli sniper. The Israeli military expressed its regret, saying the sniper had been aiming at an armed militant and hit the girl by mistake.

An elderly Palestinian woman wounded during an Israeli incursion is carried into a hospital in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahiya on Saturday.
(Adel Hana/Associated Press)

In Gaza City, an Israeli air strike destroyed a minivan and killed a man identified as an expert in building homemade rockets.

The missile strike wounded two people and instantly killed the 32-year-old driver, who was a local commander for the armed wing of the ruling Hamas movement, witnesses said.

In separate incidents, six Hamas gunmen were killed by Israeli troops.

And a civilian died when his house, apparently weakened by the shock of explosions, collapsed on him, Palestinian reports said.

Saturday's violence came a day after 17 people, including two women acting as human shields, were killed during a standoff between Israeli troops and Hamas militants at a mosque in Beit Hanoun. The Israeli army said it only fired at armed Palestinians as they tried to flee the mosque.

Launching pad for rocket attacks

On Wednesday, Israeli troops took over the border town of 30,000, the suspected launching pad for rocket attacks on Israel.

Israel says its offensive, one of the biggest since the army and Jewish settlers pulled out of Gaza a year ago after 38 years of occupation, was launched in a bid to halt the rocket attacks.

The offensive has resulted in the deaths of as many as 44 Palestinians, while more than 200 have been wounded, according to hospital officials in Gaza. One Israeli soldier has also been killed in the fighting and and one seriously wounded.

Residents say the town of Beit Hanoun has been under a virtual curfew since Israeli forces moved in. However, on Saturday the army allowed women in the town to go out for two hours to buy food.

Door-to-door searches

Israeli soldiers have been conducting door-to-door searches in the town. On Saturday, bulldozers demolished five houses near the mosque that had been the scene of the 19-hour standoff.

The Israeli military says Palestinian militants have fired 800 Qassam missiles at Israel this year from Gaza, 300 of them from Beit Hanoun.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas appealed Saturday for UN Security Council intervention to stop the Israeli military operation.

Despite the fighting, Palestinian negotiators said they were nearing agreement on forming a new government they hope will be acceptable to the West and end an international freeze on aid to the Palestinian Authority.

The Hamas government of Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh has been shunned by the international community for refusing to recognize Israel and renounce violence.

With files from the Associated Press