Two Palestinian militants were killed by Israeli forces in north Gaza early on Thursday, bringing the Palestinian death toll in two days of military operations up to 11.

Palestinian medics say Israeli troops killed three Palestinians Thursday during a gunbattle with militants in the central Gaza Strip.

A Palestinian teenager has been killed in an Israeli ground operation in central Gaza, local TV said Thursday. According to Palestinian witnesses, the boy had been throwing stones at Israeli tanks when he was hit by shrapnel, and then run over. Two civilians and two Hamas militants are also reported to have been injured.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says the United States agrees with Israel that the Gaza Strip is a "hostile entity" now that it is controlled by the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

Hamas militants are observing preparations by the Israeli military for a large-scale military operation in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, a spokesman for Hamas armed wing said Thursday.

At least three civilians were injured when Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a car with militants in a Gaza refugee camp, a local radio station said Thursday.

Hundreds of fighters belonging to the radical Hamas movement have dispersed an opposition rally in the Gaza Strip, injuring at least 15 demonstrators, a RIA Novosti correspondent reports.

At least three Palestinian militants have been killed and six wounded by the Israeli Army in clashes in the Gaza Strip, local television reported Thursday.

Hamas has banned public prayer in the Gaza Strip, accusing rival faction Fatah of using Friday prayers as a "pretext for anarchy and sedition," Arab news media report Wednesday.

The Israeli government has said it is not planning any major military incursion into the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip any time soon, regardless of ongoing rocket fire from the territory, local radio reported.

The European Commission has temporarily suspended the financing of fuel oil deliveries to the Gaza Strip over plans by Hamas to impose an electricity tax in the territory, a commission spokesman said Monday.

Israeli troops have shot and killed three Hamas militants in separate incidents along Israel's border with the Gaza Strip. In the first incident Wednesday, Israeli soldiers killed two Hamas militants near the Karni cargo crossing.