At least one Palestinian has been killed and another wounded in an Israeli air attack on southern Gaza Strip, Palestinian medical officials have said.

The Israeli military said troops had targeted a group of Palestinians who had approached the Gaza border fence, where army patrols sometimes face ambushes with guns or bombs.

The air attack, near the town of Khan Younis, comes after a spate of violence along Israel's border with Gaza in the past week.

Many Palestinians were injured in an Israeli air raid on a Hamas commander's house last Friday after a rocket fired from Gaza struck the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon causing no casualties but damaging property.

There has been growing tension in the region, with Israeli troops exchanging rocket and gunfire with Lebanese soldiers along their border on Tuesday.

The skirmish left two Lebanese soldiers and an Israeli soldier dead, and heightened fears of a war.