According to an official at the Kamel Radwan hospital in nearby Jabaliya, seven people were killed during the raid, which came as Palestinians began to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr, the three-day feast marking the end of the holy fasting month of Ramazan.
Twenty-three people were also wounded, two of them seriously, the official said.
According to witnesses, Israeli forces opened fire and killed Atta al-Shimbari, a local chief of the Popular Resistance Committees, a militant group.
The Israelis opened fire as Shimbari was at his family's house for Eid-ul-Fitr. Two of his brothers, Khaled and Kamal, his cousin Ibrahim, his nephew Mohammed and a neighbour, Rami Hamdan, were also killed.
A security official said around 20 Israeli tanks had pushed into the industrial zone of Beit Hanun and fired shells.
The army said it had "identified hitting 10 armed gunmen" during an operation to prevent the firing of rockets into the Jewish state.
More than 250 Palestinians and two Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since the Jewish state launched an offensive on the strip three days after the June 25 raid.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2006