Gaza City: Israeli forces entered the southern Gaza Strip early today and carried out searches accompanied by exchanges of fire and explosions, Palestinian security officials and witnesses said.

About 20 armoured vehicles accompanied by bulldozers and two helicopter gunships moved 1.5 kilometres inside the Hamas-controlled Strip near the Kissufim crossing point with Israel.

They searched a school and other buildings in El Karara and Wadi Al-Salka. Exchanges of fire took place between Israeli troops and Palestinians and a number of blasts were reported.

Other sources said Israeli aircraft overnight raided the Maghazi refugee camp in the centre of the Gaza Strip, targeting militants of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP). No one was wounded in the strike.

A military spokeswoman in Tel Aviv confirmed that the army had "carried out a routine operation in the area", adding that Palestinian militants had fired one rocket at southern Israel yesterday without causing casualties.

"Our forces are targeting terrorists who fire rockets wherever they are," she added.

Earlier, a member of the DFLP's military wing was killed late yesterday and three other Palestinians were wounded in an Israeli air raid on the northern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medics said.

At least 388 people have been killed, most of them Gaza militants, since Israel and the Palestinians relaunched formal peace talks at a US conference in November, according to an AFP count.
Source : PTI