As the whole world was celebrating the first minute of the new year, Israeli warplanes continued its intensive airstrikes on the Gaza Strip, killing at least two Palestinians and wounding dozens, witnesses said.

The witnesses said that an Israeli warplane fired a missile at the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah, near the borders with Egypt, killing two Palestinians and wounding at least ten others.

Both Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and hiding deposed premier of Hamas government in Gaza Ismail Haneya called shortly before the end of the year 2008 for ending the Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip.

The death of the two in Rafah is elevating the number of the Palestinians that were killed by Israeli air missiles since Saturday morning to 400 killed and more than 1000 wounded.

Palestinian medics at Rafah Hospital said that a woman and a man were killed in the airstrike that targeted a house belongs to an Islamic Hamas movement's activist in the town.

Since Saturday, Israeli warplanes hasn't stopped striking on hundreds of targets, including mosques, houses, security installations, smuggling tunnels and governmental buildings, leaving 400 dead, one third of them were civilians.

(Xinhua News Agency January 1, 2009)