Special report: New violence between Israel, Palestine

    GAZA, June 25 (Xinhua) -- A senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas warned on Sunday that Israel might exploit an earlier Palestinian militant attack on an Israeli military post to reoccupy the Gaza Strip from which the Jewish state withdrew last year.

    "What happened this dawn will give Israel an excuse to keep its aggressions, incursions and assassinations and might even give it justification to reoccupy Gaza," Nabil Abu Rudeineh told a news conference held at Abbas' office in Gaza.

    Abu Rudeineh also called upon Palestinian factions to remain calm, adding that Abbas was making close contacts with Arab and Western leaders asking them to urge Israel not to launch massive military operations.

    Early on Sunday, Palestinian militants from Hamas' armed wing Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, the leftist People's Resistance Committees (PRC) and the little-known Islamic Army mounted a fierce attack on an Israeli military post near the Kerem Shalom crossing on the Gaza-Israel border.

    Two Israeli soldiers were killed, four others wounded and another was missing, who was believed to be kidnapped.

    Two Palestinian militants were also killed in the attack, said an al-Qassam Brigades spokesman, but the Israeli army said that at least three gunmen were killed.

    The deadly attack prompted Israeli troops to intrude into the Gaza Strip in the largest intrusion since Israel pulled out forces and settlers from Gaza last summer after a 38-year-long presence there.

    The bloodshed also cast a pall over an ongoing inter-Palestinian dialogue over a proposal seeking an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

    Palestinian officials previously said that an agreement among Palestinian factions might be hammered out during the weekend.

    Hamas, or the Islamic Resistance Movement which now runs the Palestinian government, has called off a 16-month-old truce with Israel since June 9 when seven Palestinian civilians were killed in a blast on a Gaza beach.

    The Palestinians blame Israel for the bloodshed, but the Jewish state denies responsibility. Enditem