Israeli soldiers shot dead three Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, including a teenager and two armed men, Palestinian medics and an Israeli military source said today.
The violence came as militants made fresh threats to stage attacks against Israel and poured cold water on any expectations a ceasefire could be reached at Egyptian-sponsored talks among Palestinian groups this weekend.
An Israeli military source said soldiers at an outpost near an Israeli community just outside the eastern edge of Gaza had thwarted an attempted attack by shooting at two suspicious figures crawling near the border fence on Friday night.
The source said bodies of two Palestinian men were found near the site, dressed in camouflaged fatigues, lying near a 25 kilogramme bomb and some grenades.
A spokesman for the Hamas militant group, which has killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bomb attacks, claimed responsibility for the incident in a telephone call to Reuters.
A Hamas spokesman said the men, described by medics as two 20-year-olds from Gaza City, belonged to the group's military wing and were on a mission to plant an explosive device in the east of the Gaza Strip.
In a separate incident, a Palestinian teenager was shot dead in the Rafah refugee camp near the border with Egypt, when soldiers opened fire at what they said was a suspicious figure crawling toward an army outpost, a military source said.