GAZA CITY (AFP) - Israeli warplanes on Wednesday killed two women and four children in a series of strikes to the north and east of Gaza City, medics said.

"Four Palestinians were killed in air strikes, including two brothers who are 12 and 13 years old in Shejaiya, while a four-year-old boy and a woman were killed in a raid on Zeitun," emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra told AFP.

Both neighbourhoods are located east of Gaza City, close to the frontier with Israel.

In a separate air strike on the northern town of Beit Hanun, a 40-year-old woman and her 14-year-old son were killed, he added.