The Israeli military killed at least five Palestinians and injured six others during attacks on the southern and central Gaza Strip Friday, medical officials said. The fighting in southern Gaza erupted when an Israeli force crossed into the Strip near the Sufa border crossing, prompting heavy exchanges of fire with local people, who confronted the force with machine-gun fire and mortar shells according to an Israeli military spokeswoman. She said an Israeli aircraft fired a missile at a group of people armed with anti-tank missiles as they were approaching the ground force. Three Hamas fighters were killed, said the armed wing of the radical Islamic movement ruling Gaza. An Israeli soldier was also moderately injured in the fighting. In central Gaza, east of the al-Bureij refugee camp, Israeli soldiers stationed on the border spotted two people planting a bomb at the border fence. The two gunmen then opened fire at the soldiers, who returned fire and shot them according to the Israeli military. Islamic Jihad's armed wing, the al-Quds Brigades, said the dead were two of its members.
