Nov 28, 2008, 14:15 GMT
Gaza/Tel Aviv - Israeli soldiers clashed with Palestinian militants in the south-eastern Gaza Strip near the border with Israel Friday, injuring two members of the militant Islamist Hamas movement, hospital officials confirmed.
A second militant faction, the Popular Resistance Committees, issued a statement denying that one of its fighters had been killed in the clash. It said all of its fighters returned from the action unharmed.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said Israeli soldiers were on a routine patrol along the border fence, north-east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Khan Younis, when they identified a number of Palestinian militants who tried to place explosives near the fence.
She said the militants opened fire at the Israeli patrol, which then returned fire.
Militants also fired at least three mortar shells at the Israeli force, the spokeswoman said. Palestinian sources said the Israeli army responded with artillery fire.
The latest clash comes after the sides made attempts over the past week to restore a fragile informal truce between Hamas, which rules Gaza, and Israel. The truce has been increasingly shaky since a November 4 clash near the Gaza border with Israel that left at least five Hamas militants dead and sparked a new wave of rocket and mortar attacks at southern Israel.
Since Thursday last week, the rocket attacks had dropped again to an average of one a day, but on Thursday three rockets were apparently fired from the Gaza Strip.
Israel had responded to the new wave of violence by slapping a near-total closure on Gaza, preventing all but the most basic humanitarian aid from entering the enclave. Journalists have not been allowed into the strip for the past three weeks, with international media protesting the Israeli move as 'unprecedented' and a 'serious violation of press freedom.'
The closure has led to on and off power blackouts as well as a shortage in Gaza of many products, including meat and dairy.
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