Israeli air strikes on the Gaza Strip killed five people and a ground raid killed another today, Palestinian medics said, in the first armed clash in Gaza since a ceasefire took hold there in June.
An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed the air strikes, saying missiles were aimed at militants who had fired mortar bombs at Israeli forces operating in another part of the Gaza Strip. Another Palestinian was seriously wounded.
In the earlier raid, Israeli troops killed a man and wounded at least two others when the army moved into Gaza to destroy a tunnel built by militants intending to capture Israeli soldiers.
All the dead were said to be members of the Hamas Islamist group which controls the coastal enclave.
The raid was a rare Israeli military operation since the start of a ceasefire was declared on June 19th and which has largely held between Israel and Hamas.
"Security forces uncovered a tunnel intended for immediate use to abduct Israeli soldiers into the Gaza Strip," a military spokeswoman said.
In June 2006 Gaza gunmen snatched Gilad Shalit, an Israeli soldier, when they infiltrated through a tunnel under the border fence into an Israel army base bordering on the southern Gaza Strip. Shalit is still being held at a secret location.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said the raid proved that Israel was not interested in continuing the ceasefire although he stopped short of saying that Hamas would abandon it.
"The aggression is a major violation of the agreement. If such raids are repeated, fighting will not be limited only to the area east of the central Gaza Strip," Abu Zuhri said.
Reuters