A 19-year-old Islamic Jihad operative and a 21-year-old Hamas gunman were killed in two other airstrikes in the area, their groups said.
The IDF said it had identified three groups of Palestinians carrying anti-tank missiles, approaching Israeli ground forces in the neighborhood of Dahaniya, and hit them from the air, identifying a positive hit each time.
The army added that it did not know of a family being struck.
Early Saturday, tanks moved into positions on the eastern side of Rafah, took over an abandoned Palestinian security training camp and sealed off roads leading in and out of the town from that side, Palestinian security officials said. A day earlier Israeli troops conducted house-to-house searches in the area.