Rafah, Southern Gaza, September 22 (NDTV.COM) Five Palestinians were killed in two separate attacks by the Israeli Army in the Gaza Strip on Thursday.

In Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, a raid by Israeli soldiers early on Thursday morning killed two Palestinians and wounded at least three others.

A 37-year-old Palestinian woman died from injuries she suffered before dawn on Thursday at the start of the incursion.

The other victim was said to be a 28-year-old man, who the Israeli Army claimed was a gunman killed during a firefight.

During the raid, artillery also hit a home in the Rafah area of Gaza, wounding four family members, one of them seriously.

The army would only say that forces were operating in the Rafah area of Gaza.

And in northern Gaza, the Israeli army killed three suspected militants who were operating a rocket launcher that they had used earlier in the day to fire projectiles at the Israeli town of Sderot, the army said.

The three men were killed by an artillery shell in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya, the army said.

An army spokesperson said the men had wanted to pick up a ramp from which rockets were fired into Israel on Thursday.

Palestinian medics said the victims were local shepherds aged 14 to 16.

Mourners collected the three bodies from the morgue and carried them through the streets of Beit Lahiya for burial.