Israel launched another airstrike in northern Gaza on Friday afternoon, following a gunboats' artillery fire earlier at targets in the area near the Mediterranean coast, security sources said.

The fresh airstrike was carried out by an Israeli drone against a Palestinian car that drove in northern Gaza Strip, said the sources.

Initial reports said that at least two militants from the ruling Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) were injured in the airstrike, said the sources, adding one of the injured is in critical conditions.

Earlier in the day, Israeli reconnaissance drones also carried out two airstrikes, killing three Palestinians, witnesses reported.

They said that an Israeli drone had first fired one rocket at a group of militant, members of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) and critically wounded two militants.

The rest of the militants escaped in a car that drove in northern Gaza Strip, but the drone kept following the car and attacked it by two rockets, killing at least three militants, added the sources.

Meanwhile, Israeli naval boats gunship fired three shells at the beach of the town of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza Strip also on Friday afternoon, killing at least 12 Palestinians and wounding fifty others, many of them are in serious conditions.

Eyewitnesses said that they saw the bodies of the dead people on the sands of Beit Lahia beach, adding that dozens of people were wounded while children were crying and screaming.

Dozens of ambulances arrived at the beach and carried the bodies of the dead and the other wounded to northern Gaza Strip hospitals, most of them are men and children, they said.

(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2006)