Two Palestinians were killed on Saturday as Israel continued air and ground operations against militants in the Gaza Strip, a day after the UN General Assembly urged an end to the violence.
Israeli leaders also issued calls for tougher efforts to stop rocket attacks, with one far-right cabinet minister saying Palestinian prime minister Ismail Haniya and other militant leaders should be sent to "paradise."
Soldiers in the northern Gaza Strip shot dead two Palestinians and wounded three others, medical sources said, after a third straight night of air strikes against militant targets.
Said Hahjuj, 20, a member of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, was killed in Umm Nasser, on the northernmost border, the DFLP said.
Thaer al-Masry, 16, was later shot dead in the same village, medical sources said. Three other Palestinians were wounded.
The army, which has been operating in northern Gaza since Friday as part of a campaign to halt daily rocket salvos against the Jewish state, said both victims were armed.
Overnight, Israeli aircraft carried out three raids against Hamas buildings in northern Gaza, the army said.
The latest violence comes a day after the UN General Assembly passed a resolution urging an immediate end to all acts of violence by Israelis and Palestinians, including Israel's Gaza offensive.
It also asks the UN secretary general to set up a fact-finding mission to probe the Israeli shelling last week of the Gaza town of Beit Hanun, which killed 19 people, mainly children and women.
Government spokesman Avi Pazner called the resolution unbalanced and a product of the "the anti-Israel majority" in the General Assembly.
And Israeli Ambassador Dan Gillerman blamed the ruling Palestinian Hamas movement for the Gaza violence by failing to stop rocket attacks against Israel and by refusing to recognise the Jewish state.
"This bloodshed can stop in one second. If terrorism stops, there will not be one single victim, Israeli or Palestinian," Gillerman said. "The choice is yours. End the violence and Israel will never have to act in self-defence."
On Thursday, Spain, France and Italy offered a new peace plan calling for a cease-fire, an exchange of prisoners, a Palestinian national unity government an international conference and a fact-finding mission to the Palestinian territories.
It was welcomed by Hamas prime minister Isamail Haniya, who said it contained "positive points".
Even the radical group Islamic Jihad said it would cease firing rockets at Israel if Israel halted attacks on the Palestinians.
There has not yet been any official Israeli reaction, but the head of parliament's foreign affairs committee, Tzahi Hanegbi, said it would deprive Israel of the ability "to strike terrorist infrastructure" in Gaza and allow militants "to capitalise on the calm to launch an armaments drive."
In Amman, Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdullah al-Khatib welcomed the proposal on Saturday, saying it represented a "new international interest in ... contributing to a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian problem."
Despite the UN vote, Israeli leaders continued calls to step up the offensive. Avigdor Lieberman, the newly appointed minister of strategic affairs, said militant leaders including Haniya and foreign minister Mahmud Zahar should be targeted.
"One should not attack the refugee camps where people live in misery, but rather attack the leaders of Hamas and Islamic Jihad," said Lieberman, who heads the far-right Yisrael Beitenu party. "All must disappear and go together to paradise.
His comments came amid calls by senior Israeli officials to step up military operations against Gaza militants and target their leaders after a Palestinian rocket killed an Israeli woman on Wednesday.
Defence Minister Amir Peretz ordered army chiefs to draw up new "aggressive" initiatives for Gaza on the same day.
Infrastructure Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer, of the centre-left Labour party, has called for more targeted killings, branded assassinations by the Palestinians, and also said that Haniya should not be immune.
Some 200 peace activists demonstrated on Saturday at the Erez border crossing between Israel and Gaza, demanding a cease-fire and new talks with the Palestinians, organisers said.
And a Palestinian militant shot during an Israeli operation in Gaza at the beginning of November died on Saturday, medics said. Shadi al-Sherif, 27, was a member of the armed wing of Hamas.
Saturday's deaths brought to 5,569 the number of people killed since the 2000 outbreak of the Palestinian uprising, he large majority of them Palestinians, according to an AFP count.