Israeli soldiers shot dead two Palestinians trying to sneak into Israel from the Gaza Strip today and troops fought gun battles with militants during a raid into a refugee camp overnight, security sources said.
The two Palestinians were killed overnight when troops opened fire on a group of people approaching Gaza's border fence with Israel, the sources said. At daybreak, soldiers searching the area found the bodies, apparently unarmed, near the border.
Israeli security officials were investigating whether the men were labourers seeking to cross the border to obtain work in Israel or had plans to link up with militants in the West Bank to stage attacks against Israel.
Four other Palestinians in the group that came under fire managed to penetrate into Israel. One was later captured while soldiers and police were searching for three others believed hiding in southern Israel, the Israeli sources said.
The incident occurred as Israeli soldiers backed by tanks and bulldozers demolished 10 houses during a predawn raid into southern Gaza's Khan Younis refugee camp, Palestinian witnesses said.
The Israeli military said Palestinian militants detonated explosives wounding two soldiers and that the troops also came under "massive" anti-tank and automatic gunfire during the raid.
Israel said its soldiers destroyed several unoccupied homes used to fire mortars at the nearby Gush Katif settlement bloc. There were no reported Palestinian casualties in the raid.
The militant Hamas group said it fired 26 mortar bombs at Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip on Sunday.