GAZA: Armed clashes between local Palestinian militants and invading Israeli forces took place Thursday morning in the southern part of the Gaza Strip, witnesses said.
They said Israeli ground forces rolled into eastern Al-Qarara village southern of the Gaza Strip early on Thursday, sparking heavy exchange of fire with local militants belonging to different armed groups.
Al-Quds Brigades, the military wing of Islamic Jihad, said in a statement sent they fired six mortar shells at the Israeli ground forces operating near the Kissufim crossing located east of Al-Qarara village southern Gaza.
The brigades did not say whether any of its fighters or Israeli soldiers were wounded during the confrontations. But a spokesman for the Israeli military said that he was not aware of any military actions in the area.
Later, Israeli military officials said that the army has escalated its operations along the border with the Gaza Strip in order to prevent possible Palestinian attacks.
Meanwhile, two more Palestinians were killed in two separate accidents in tunnels on the borders between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, witnesses and medical sources said on Thursday.
The sources said that one tunnel worker died from suffocation on Wednesday night when the tunnel collapsed on top of him.
An electric shock killed another man early on Thursday in another tunnel.
Medical sources in Gaza confirmed on Thursday that 110 Palestinians died in tunnel incidents during the past two years.
Israel imposed a strict a blockade on the densely populated enclave ever since Hamas seized control there in June 2007. Since then, thousands of tunnels were dug by Palestinians to transfer food supplies and goods from Egypt into the besieged enclave.
