Israeli troops killed four Palestinians in the Gaza Strip and widened a four-month-old offensive on Wednesday by sending tanks to take up positions around the Rafah border crossing with Egypt, residents said.
Palestinians carry the body of Ghazi Dahroj, who was killed by Israeli troops today, during his funeral in the northern Gaza strip.
The Israeli military said its forces were searching for tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip used by Palestinian militants to smuggle in weapons from Egypt.
Palestinian hospital staff said Israeli troops killed two gunmen from the governing Islamist group Hamas in clashes in the town of Rafah.
In the northern Gaza Strip, residents said at least two Palestinians who they identified as a Hamas gunman and a civilian, were killed by Israeli forces overnight.
An Israeli army spokesman said soldiers had shot two gunmen in Rafah. He said he was unaware of any clashes between troops and militants in the northern Gaza Strip.
Residents said some tanks took up positions outside the main gate of the Rafah terminal and an army bulldozer tore up the road leading to it.
But the Israeli forces did not enter the border crossing, which has been open only sporadically since Israel renewed ground operations in the Gaza Strip in June after Palestinian militants seized a soldier in a raid into southern Israel.
Although under Palestinian control with EU monitors, Israel has effective power to shut the crossing by cutting off access roads inside Israeli territory used by the European staff. Hamas said the deployment around the Rafah crossing - Gaza's only link to the outside world that does not pass through Israel - was tantamount to Israeli reoccupation of the border area.
Israel withdrew its troops and settlers from the Gaza Strip last year. Over the past week, Israel has upped its offensive, which it says is aimed at keeping pressure on militant groups, curtailing rocket attacks and finding cross-border tunnels.
The Israeli-Palestinian violence has deepened the gloom in the territory, which is also beset by internal clashes between factions loyal to Hamas, dedicated to destroying Israel, and to President Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate.
"We call upon the international community and the United Nations to take serious, decisive and immediate steps to block the Israeli aggression and protect civilians," the Palestinian government said in a statement.
Around 250 Palestinians, about half of them civilians, have been killed in Israel's operations in Gaza since June.