Gaza, Dec 26 (DPA) Israeli soldiers killed two Islamic Jihad militants early Sunday in a gunfight in the southern Gaza Strip, medical officials and the Israeli military said.
A medical official told reporters that ambulance teams found the bodies in a village near Khan Younis. The Islamic Jihad said in a leaflet that the two had been killed in a ‘heavy gunfight’ with Israeli troops.
An Israeli military spokeswoman said soldiers had spotted the two placing explosive charges against the border fence, and, from a helicopter gunship, had returned their fire.
The clash is the latest in a series of escalations between Israeli troops and militants from the Gaza Strip, ruled by the Islamist Hamas movement.
According to Israeli military figures, 27 rockets and mortar shells have been launched in the past week at Israeli towns and villages adjacent to the Strip, and 230 have been fired since the beginning of the year.
Israel for its part has renewed its policy of airstrikes at the enclave, in response to the rocket and mortar fire.
