By Xinhua,
Gaza : Three Palestinian militants were wounded early on Sunday in an Israeli strike in central Gaza Strip,near the border with Israel, sources said.
The sources added that the Israeli artillery shelling followed an explosion as Israeli forces infiltrated for 150 meters into the east of al-Maghazi refugee camp in central Gaza Strip.
The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), an armed group loyal to Hamas, said the wounded gunmen were from its members and that they set off a bomb, targeting the invading troops, before the Israeli tanks attacked them.
The incidents took place around midnight.
Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants have frequently engaged each other near the border between Gaza and Israel since Nov. 4 when Israel launched a sudden incursion into Gaza, rocking a June ceasefire that Egypt brokered in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
The ceasefire calls on Israel to halt its military operations into Gaza and ease the blockade on the territory in exchange for stopping Palestinian rocket-fire that targets Israeli border towns.
Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak decided to extend the closure of crossing points into Gaza, citing the continuation of rocket attacks. The blockade was tightened since the violence flared up earlier this month but Israel allowed several truck convoys of aid and diesel into the strip.
On Friday night, at least six Israelis were wounded when mortars landed on a military base near Nahal Oz, the crossing that Israel uses to deliver fuel shipments to Gaza.