Special report: Palestine-Israel Relations

    GAZA, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- Israeli troops rolled into southeastern Gaza Strip on Thursday amid heavy machine gunfire, sparking reactions from Palestinian fighters, witnesses said.

    The militants rushed to the al-Shouka neighborhood in the east of border town of Rafah and fired mortar shells at the Israeli tanks and bulldozers, the witnesses said.

    There were no reports of casualties on both sides. However, the Israeli bulldozers caused damage to makeshift houses and groves.

    Israel forces often roll into al-Shouka, a small community alongside the border with Israel, from which Palestinian fighters infiltrated Israel in June 2006 and kidnapped an Israeli soldier from his base.

    Meanwhile, two Palestinian armed groups claimed responsibility for detonating a bomb when an Israeli army jeep patrolling the border in central Gaza Strip was passing by.

    Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah movement and the military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) said the explosion was meant to "respond to the ongoing Israeli aggression against the Palestinians."