(Adds army comment, paragraph 5)

GAZA, Oct 26 (Reuters) - Israeli troops shot and killed three Palestinians in separate incidents in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, Palestinian witnesses and hospital officials said.

A police officer was shot near Khan Younis, a town in southern Gaza, after Israeli troops entered a village and exchanged fire with Palestinian security forces, witnesses said. Doctors said the man died later from his wounds.

The Israeli army said forces operating in the area came under attack and returned fire. One Israeli soldier was wounded during the exchange, it said.

In a later incident, also in the Khan Younis area, an unarmed Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli soldiers, witnesses said.

An Israeli army spokesman said Israeli troops "operating against terrorist infrastructure" came under attack by gunmen and returned fire, hitting one of them.

In the north part of the Gaza Strip, Israeli soldiers shot and killed a Palestinian man near the town of Beit Hanoun, residents said. Witnesses said the man was catching birds on farmland when the soldiers opened fire.

An army spokesman said soldiers in the area spotted three people approaching the border in a suspicious way.

"The soldiers called to them to stop. When they didn't stop, the soldiers opened fire and identified hitting at least one of them," he said.

Israel has been conducting an offensive in the Gaza Strip since the abduction of one of its soldiers on June 25 by a group of militants, including members of the governing Islamic faction Hamas. The soldier is still being held.

More than 250 Palestinians, around half of them militants, have been killed during the offensive, hospital officials and witnesses have said.

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