Ziad al-Ghnam, general commander of the Al-Quds Brigades, was killed with Raid al-Ghnam, an engineer commander, and local commander Mohammed al-Raai, in the air strike in the southern town of Khan Yunis, the Brigades said.

Israel accused Ziad al-Ghnam of being behind a string of anti-Israeli attacks, including the killing of a pregnant woman and her four daughters in May 2004, before Israel withdrew all troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip.

The army said Raai placed a roadside bomb and fired a rocket-propelled grenade during a May 2004 attack on the buffer zone between Gaza and Egypt in which five Israeli soldiers were killed and five wounded.

"The continued Zionist aggression against our fighters and our people will not pass without a quick response in the heart of the Zionist entity," the Al-Quds Brigades said in a statement.

"We confirm the blood of every martyr strengthens our resolve to continue the work of jihad and strengthening the Intifada against the occupiers."

All three were travelling in the same car in the centre of Khan Yunis, when an Israeli aircraft fired two missiles into the vehicle on Saturday.

Another four Palestinians were killed in a second Israeli air strike on the Maghazi refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

An Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at a moving vehicle in the centre of the southern town of Khan Yunis, killing three members of the Islamic Jihad militant group and wounding four bystanders, security sources said.

A second strike on the Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza Strip killed Salah Qufa, 46, his 23-year-old son Iyad and a 40-year-old civilian, and injured two people, the sources said.

A fourth person injured in the strike died of his wounds several hours later, medical sources said. His identity remained unclear.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Sunday that attacks against Palestinian militants would continue after what he called "extremely important attacks against the Islamic Jihad where seven terrorists were killed".