Israeli troops have killed two Palestinians and wounded several others during a raid in the northern Gaza Strip, residents and ambulance workers say.
Hamas and the Popular Resistance Committees said on Wednesday that their fighters confronted the Israelis in the Gaza town of Beit Lahiya.
The area is used by fighters as a launching ground for rocket attacks on southern Israel.
Shooting started between the soldiers and the Palestinains after more than a dozen Israeli armoured vehicles and two bulldozers rolled into the strip near the northern town, witnesses and medics said.
According to Dr Muawiya Hassanin of the Palestinian health ministry, besides the two killed, several others were injured in the Israeli firing.
Israeli soldiers regularly enter the Gaza Strip.