Palestinians carry the wounded at Kamal Adwan Hospital after an Israeli air strike in Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza Strip January 11, 2010. [Xinhua]

Two Palestinians were killed Monday night in an Israeli tank shelling on northern Gaza Strip town of Biet Hanoun, witnesses and local sources said.

They said Israeli tanks stationed near the borders at northern Gaza Strip and Israel shelled a group of Palestinians, adding that the shelling killed two people and wounded two others.

Gaza emergency chief Mu'aweya Hassanein told reporters that two Palestinians were killed and two others injured in an Israeli shelling on the town of Biet Hanoun, adding that they were broughtto Kamal Odwan Hospital in northern Gaza Strip.

Local sources said that the two dead are members of Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades, an armed wing of Islamic Hamas movement, adding that the militants were apparently trying to fire rockets from the area at Israel.

There has been no immediate Israeli army response on the raid. However, an Israeli army spokesman said that the army is checking out the report.

The Israeli army and Gaza militant groups escalated mutual attacks over the past ten days, where Gaza militants fired homemade rockets and mortar shells at southern Israel, and the Israeli retaliated and killed around 12 people.

Hamas movement had earlier asked Gaza militant groups for restrain to preserve the highest interests of the Palestinian people in order not to give Israel an excuse to carry out another war against the enclave it controls.

During a 22-day Israeli military operation which ended in January last year, more than 1,400 Palestinians were killed with over 5,000 injured.

(Xinhua News Agency January 12, 2010)