"The army will continue to control the area where it deployed (Monday) until the last minute before the withdrawal," Shaul Mofaz told the Yediot Aharonot daily on a visit to Beit Hanun on Thursday.

Troops raided and occupied the area after Palestinian militants fired two rockets into the nearby southern Israeli town of Sderot, killing two civilians, last Monday.

The hardline Islamic Hamas group claimed the attack. It was the first time their trademark, homemade Qassam rockets had caused any Israeli casualties.

Mofaz's office confirmed his statements to AFP on Friday.

The Israeli government backed in early June a proposal by Prime Minister Ariel Sharon to pull out troops from Gaza and dismantle all Jewish settlements in the territory, and another four in the northern West Bank by end-2005.

Meanwhile, in the Gaza Strip, three Palestinian men were killed by Israeli fire in three separate incidents, while a 15-yera-old Palestinian youth died of wounds he had sustained Thursday, medics said.

Mohammed Ahmed Krayyem, 55, was killed near the Jewish settlement bloc of Gush Katif and 25-year-old Yussef al-Arja was shot in Rafah, both in the southern Gaza Strip.

Israeli military sources confirmed they opened fire and "hit" a Palestinian man who was walking toward an army post in the Gush Katif bloc.

Khan Yunis residents told AFP that Krayyem had been mentally disabled.

Arja was shot by fire from an Israeli tank, Palestinian security sources and witnesses said, but there was no immediate confirmation from the Israeli army.

In Beit Hanun, Mohammed Deifallah, 21, was killed inside his house and Hamzi Abush died of wounds inflicted when he and other Palestinians were protesting against an Israeli operation, medics said.

Troops have closed some four kilometers (three miles) of the Salaheddine road that links Beit Hanun to Erez -- the only Palestinian crossing point into Israel except Rafah at the southern most tip of the Gaza Strip.

The deaths brought the overall toll since the September 2000 outbreak of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising, to 4,144, including 3,149 Palestinians and 923 Israelis, according to an AFP count.