Jerusalem ? The targets were two wanted militants from the Palestinian group Hamas, blamed for causing many Israeli deaths at the hands of suicide bombers and gun-wielding assailants.

But Israeli authorities acknowledged that the men they had hoped to eliminate Sunday with a missile strike in the Gaza Strip apparently escaped unscathed — and that two young Palestinian passers-by had died instead.

In a scenario typical of what the Israeli government calls “targeted killings” — which are deemed assassinations by Israeli human-rights groups and Palestinians — military helicopters fired rockets at a car believed to be carrying the fugitives.

At the time of the attack, the vehicle was traveling through a fruit orchard in central Gaza near the Khan Yunis refugee camp. Witnesses said the wanted men, shielded by foliage, managed to scramble out of the vehicle, escaping injury. But two teenage Palestinians without known connections to militant groups were killed, Palestinian officials said.

In nearly 28 months of fighting, Israel has tracked down and killed dozens of wanted Palestinian militants accused of masterminding attacks against Israelis. But the strikes, often staged in crowded Palestinian urban areas, also have hurt and killed scores of innocent bystanders.

Also Sunday, a Palestinian gunman apparently slipped through security in the Israeli farming community of Gadish and killed a man, police said.

Gadish lies near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, which has been a hotbed of violence throughout the Palestinian uprising that broke out in September 2000. The local police chief, David Sisso, told Israel Radio that three Israeli soldiers had been hurt in the incident.