By DPA
Tel Aviv : Israeli ground troops crossed into the southern Gaza Strip Wednesday morning, almost two weeks after militants from the area attacked the Israeli side of the nearby Kissufum crossing.
A number of tanks drove over the border into the village of Karara, on the eastern outskirts of the town of Khan Younis, drawing fire from local militants who confronted them and fired rocket-propelled grenades at them.
Witnesses said at least one militant was killed and four others injured in "intense" gunbattles in the area.
The fatality was a 19-year-old member of the Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), they said.
An Israeli army spokesman said the Israeli troops first shot and either killed or injured one militant and then six others in two separate shoot-outs in the village.
He said the troops were searching for weapons and militants in the village.
The rare raid in Gaza came after four armed Palestinian militants of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and the Islamic Jehad driving a white jeep with the letter TV taped on it attacked an Israeli army position at the Kissufim crossing on June 9, in a botched attempt to capture an Israeli soldier.
They found the position empty, and one of the attackers was shot when reinforcements arrived at the scene.
Earlier Wednesday, Israeli soldiers operating in a village near the northern West Bank city of Jenin shot dead two Islamic Jehad militants, according to security sources.
They said a large army unit entered the village of Kufr Dan seeking to arrest wanted Palestinian militants.
However, after a long exchange of gunfire between the unit and armed Palestinians, the army shelled the house the militants were in, killing two, the sources said.
The two were identified as members of Saraya al-Quds, the military wing of the fundamentalist Islamic Jehad in their early 30s.