Israeli troops fire on north Gaza

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli forces carried out a missile attack on a group of Palestinians in the northern Gaza Strip on Thursday, killing two militants and wounding three other people, witnesses and hospital officials said.

They said the missile strike in Beit Lahayia followed rocket launches by Palestinian militants across the border into Israel.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said ground forces fired on a Palestinian rocket crew.

One of the dead militants was identified as a member of al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed wing of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction. The affiliation of the second militant was not immediately known.

(Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi; Writing by Dan Williams in Jerusalem)