Special report: New violence between Israel, Palestine

Israeli soldiers patrol the area near the Kerem Shalom border crossing, near the Gaza strip, June 25, 2006.  (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

    JERUSALEM, June 25 (Xinhua) -- Israel Defense Forces, backed by tanks, entered into Gaza Strip near Kerem Shalom hours after the raid by Palestinian armed groups in the pre-dawn Sunday, military sources told Xinhua.

    The sources said the troops are manhunting tunnels and the Palestinian gunmen who reached the post through a tunnel dug under the border.

    It was not clear whether Palestinian ruling Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) was involved directly in the raid, added the sources.

    Israeli army confirmed earlier that five Israeli soldiers were wounded in the gun-battle with the Palestinian militants, who attacked an Israeli army post near the Kerem Shalom crossing on the Gaza-Israeli borders earlier in the day.

    A spokesman of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) told Xinhua that Israeli army is still searching for the Palestinian gunmen in the south in the wake of the attack, which wounded five Israeli soldiers.

    Izz el-Deen al-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, claimed that it helped the People's Resistance Committees (PRC) and the Islamic Army to carry out the raid on Israeli army post. The armed group said that the operation was carried out to avenge the killing of PRC leader Jamal Abu Samhadana by Israeli army this month and the air strike that killed seven civilians of one family on a Gaza beach.

    The IDF had closed the Kerem Shalom crossing for several days last week due to a security alert, which caused the closure of Rafah crossing as the European Union monitors could not reach Rafah. Enditem

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