GAZA, (Reuters) – A missile from an Israeli aircraft killed a Palestinian militant in the Gaza Strip on Wednesday after he was spotted near a rocket launcher, local residents and the Israeli military said.

Gaza residents said the man was a member of al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, part of President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement. Another Palestinian was wounded in the strike.

An Israeli army spokesman said the man was trying to remove launchers that were used earlier to fire two makeshift rockets into Israel.

An Israeli was wounded by one of the two rockets fired from the Beit Lahiya area in the north of the Gaza Strip, an army spokesman said.

Israel has carried out frequent air strikes on the territory during an offensive launched in late June after gunmen from Gaza abducted a soldier in a cross-border raid.

More than 210 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, have been killed during the offensive, which Israel says is also aimed at stopping militants from firing their makeshift rockets into Israel.

In the early hours of the morning, Israel launched an air strike on a house in the militant stronghold of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, the Israeli military and Palestinian witnesses said. There were no casualties in the attack.

Witnesses said the house, which was destroyed, belonged to a Palestinian militant. It was unclear to which faction the militant belonged. They said the house was empty at the time of the attack.