Children gather round the site of a deadly Israeli air strike here in Gaza's southern city of Khan Younis.

In the early hours of Sunday morning, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian gunman and wounded another.

An Israeli military spokesman claimed the men targeted were preparing to fire rockets into Israel.

The killing comes just hours after another strike killed the leader of an al Qaeda-linked militant group.

Both Hamas and Israel identified the man killed in the earlier attack as a Salafi jihadist.

About 40 rockets have been fired from Gaza into Israel this month.