GAZA - Four Palestinians were killed and over 20 others were injured at predawn on Wednesday in a new Israeli army ground raid on the town of Beit Hanoun in northern Gaza Strip, medics and security sources reported.

Medics said that one security officer and three militants were shot dead and more than twenty others suffered moderate and critical wounds after they were injured by fragments from Israeli rockets and shells.

Security sources said that more than 20 Israeli armored vehicles, tanks and bulldozers - backed by helicopters and drones - stormed into the town amid intensive gunfire and armed confrontations with militants.

The sources said armored vehicles stormed into the town from two directions, adding that several tanks were seen into the town' s center. Bulldozers were also seen razing farms in the town.

Eyewitnesses said they saw Israeli army helicopters landed north of the town, adding that there might be casualties among the Israeli soldiers injured by Palestinian militants' fire. Al-Aqsa Martyears Brigades claimed responsibility for destroying an armored vehicle in the town by detonating a roadside bomb planted to block the vehicles progress into the area.

On Tuesday, three more Palestinians were shot dead east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis during an Israeli army ground operation to search for underground tunnels near the borders between Gaza and Israel.

Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz and his Chief of Staff Dan Halouts approved two days ago a large-scale ground military operation into Gaza Strip to prevent militants from firing rockets at Israel.

The Israeli army move came also after an increase of arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip through tunnels militants dig under the borders between Gaza Strip and Egypt.