Palestinian girl, 12, killed by Israeli sniper fire

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GAZA CITY (CNN) -- Israeli sniper fire accidentally killed a 12-year-old Palestinian girl in Beit Hanoun on Saturday, Israel Defense Forces said.

Soldiers were aiming for a militant among a group of armed men when the girl was hit, the IDF said. The girl's shooting is under investigation.

Palestinian security sources said four Palestinians were killed in the sniper attack. The other deaths were not immediately confirmed by the IDF.

Earlier Saturday, a senior commander in the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigade militant group was killed and two of his bodyguards were wounded when the car they were riding in was hit in Gaza City by an Israeli airstrike, Palestinian security sources told CNN.

The commander's name was not given, but sources said he was a bomb maker.

An Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman confirmed the airstrike, saying those in the car were Hamas terrorists.

This latest violence comes days after Israel intensified its military operations in Gaza. Since the June 25 cross-border capture of an Israeli soldier by Hamas-linked Palestinian militants, Israel has launched many raids.

On Friday, eight people, including some civilians, died in four Israeli airstrikes in Palestinian-controlled Gaza -- three in Beit Lahiya and one in Rafah -- Palestinian security sources said.

Also Friday, Palestinian militants who had been in a firefight with Israeli soldiers escaped, many of them slipping away in a crowd of women who had come to join what had begun as a standoff.

Israeli troops fired into the crowd, and there were reports of civilian casualties.

The gunmen had sought cover at a northern Gaza mosque for hours, mingling with a crowd of Palestinian women who had formed a human shield outside, the IDF said.

Palestinian sources said some of the militants had put on women's clothes.

The number and identities of those killed and wounded remained unclear amid conflicting reports.

An IDF spokesman said the troops fired on the women because two of the militants were hiding in the group. He said both men were killed.

Palestinian medical sources said two women, age 45 and 50, who were demonstrating at the mosque, were killed.

Palestinian security sources earlier reported one woman was killed and 10 were wounded.

The Israeli daily newspaper Haaretz reported that witnesses said a 40-year-old woman was killed and several other women were wounded when the IDF opened fire on the group, which had served as human shields to enable the gunmen to slip out of the mosque.

Israeli forces said they eventually entered the mosque and found no gunmen inside.

CNN's Michal Zippori contributed to this story.

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