Gaza: At least eleven people are dead, including two children, following an Israeli strike on a vehicle carrying a Palestinian rocket-launching squad in Gaza on Tuesday.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas called the missile attack "state terrorism".

Hospital officials said nine of those killed were civilians, including two children and two medics. Two Islamic Jihad militants were killed and 30 people were wounded. Earlier reports said there was only a total of nine deaths.

The Israeli military said the militants were on a mission to launch rockets at southern Israel.

Witnesses said several missiles were fired, with only one hitting the militants' car. The second missile allegedly came two minutes after the first, when a crowd had gathered at the scene.

The strike is one of the deadliest from the air in years and marks a surge of recent rocket fire from militants.

The attack follows the killing of seven Palestinians on a day of Israeli artillery shelling on Friday.