Israeli troops have shot dead three Palestinians, including a 91-year-old man and his teenage grandson, in the Gaza town of Beit Hanoun, a Palestinian medical official says.
"Ibrahim Abdullah Abu Saeed, a caretaker at a a farm, aged 91, and Ismael Walid Abu Audeh, 20, were killed on Sunday by fire from an Israeli tank," Adham Abu Salima, a spokesman for local medical services, told AFP.
Shortly after, the caretaker's 17-year-old grandson, Hossam Khaled Abu Saeed, also died of wounds sustained in the incident, close to the flashpoint Gaza-Israel border, medics said.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli army confirmed the shooting.
Troops "opened fire at a group of terrorists preparing to fire an RPG (rocket-propelled grenade)" at Israel, she told AFP, but she was unable to say how many suspects were hit or give further details.
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The army spokeswoman said the incident was the second one at the border on Sunday and that earlier troops had fired warning shots at a group of men approaching the frontier fence.
Earlier in the day a rocket fired by Palestinian militants from the Hamas-run Gaza Strip struck Israel but did not cause casualties or damage.
At least seven rockets or mortar rounds have hit Israel in the past week, and on Friday Israel launched a series of reprisal air raids, mostly targeting smuggling tunnels, that wounded two members of the Hamas security forces.
Hamas is vehemently opposed to Israeli-Palestinian peace talks which restarted in Washington this month after a break of nearly two years. A second round of talks is to take place on Tuesday in Egypt.
