Israeli troops killed a Palestinian gunman during an incursion into the Gaza Strip today, local medical sources, Hamas Islamists who control Gaza and the Israeli army said.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops operating close to the border east of Gaza City spotted an armed man and shot him. she said an Israeli soldier was wounded in the exchange.
In an air strike earlier today, a missile destroyed an outpost belonging to Hamas militants, critically wounding one gunman. A number of bystanders were also hurt, Hamas said.
A second air strike was aimed at a building suspected of being a munitions workshop in Gaza City. The army spokeswoman said the missle missed its intended target.
The attacks came in response to a cross-border mortar strike on an Israeli industrial plant near the Gaza frontier yesterday which killed a factory worker. A young Palestinian girl was also killed in an Israeli strike yesterday.
Israel has tightened a blockade on the Gaza Strip and often conducts air strikes and raids into the territory which it says are aimed at ending frequent rocket and mortar fire at towns and agricultural communities close to the border.
Hamas seized the Gaza Strip from the forces of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction a year ago in a brief but bloody civil war.
Violence along the Gaza border has marred peace talks between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Mr Abbas, who holds sway in the West Bank.
Egypt has so far failed in efforts to broker a truce to curb the rocket attacks on Israel and Israeli raids in the Gaza Strip.
