An explosion in the northern Gaza Strip town of Beit Lahia on Tuesday killed one Hamas activist and injured three others, security officials said.

The three were carrying an explosive device or projectile, which accidentally fell and blew up, they said.

They were trying to "secure" an outpost of the auxiliary security force loyal to the ruling Palestinian movement against possible attacks by gunmen of the rival Fatah movement, a day after at least two people were injured and more than a dozen kidnapped in fresh clashes between the two groups.

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In a separate incident earlier Tuesday, Palestinian gunners fired mortar shells at the Karni crossing point into the Gaza Strip, striking a truck and lightly wounding its driver, Israel Radio reported.

The driver, who was not identifed, was evacuated to Soroka hospital in Be'er Sheva.

The Karni terminal is at present the only entry point for relief supplies, cargo and staple goods into the strife-torn Gaza Strip.

A number of recent Israeli proposals for humanitarian gestures toward the Palestinians involve use of the Karni terminal.

AFP photographer kidnapped in Gaza
On Monday in the Strip, Palestinian militants kidnapped Peruvian photographer Jaime Razuri, who was working for the French press agency in the Gaza Strip on Monday, Agence France-Presse and Palestinian security sources said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the abduction.
Abbas condemned the kidnapping, according to a statement published by the Palestinian WAFA news agency.

The kidnapping came as internal tensions between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah flared Monday in northern Gaza, with unknown assailants abducting 12 Hamas members and four from Fatah, security sources said.

All the kidnapped militants were later freed after both sides agreed to swap captives, sources from the groups said.

The groups declared a truce in December to end weeks of deadly violence, which intensified after Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, head of Fatah, called for new elections. The militant group Hamas, which won a parliamentary ballot in January, has dismissed calls for fresh elections as attempts at a coup.

The kidnappings Monday sparked gunbattles between the factions, which wounded three Palestinians caught in the crossfire, including a boy, Palestinian rescue workers said. The identities of the other two were unknown.

Militants in Gaza have abducted nearly 20 foreigners in the past, usually to try to put pressure on the Palestinian government to give them jobs.

Security officials said the kidnapping of the photographer took place outside the AFP office in Gaza City, an area where many foreign news agencies have offices. They said the victim was standing at an intersection when about five masked men approached him, pushed him in a car and sped away.

The Tel Aviv-based Foreign Press Association, representing foreign journalists in Israel and the Palestinian areas, condemned the kidnapping of Razuri. "We utterly condemn the continued harassment of journalists in this way. We must be allowed to work freely and without fear of kidnapping in Gaza," the FPA said in a statement.

In two separate incidents in October, gunmen in Gaza seized and held a Spanish aid worker and a photographer working for the Associated Press news agency for several hours. In August, Gaza militants kept two journalists from the U.S. Fox News channel captive for two weeks.

Meanwhile, two media watchdogs said Monday that journalists suffered one of their deadliest years ever in 2006.

Paris-based Reporters without Borders (RSF) said at least 81 reporters and 32 media staff were killed in 2006 as a result of their jobs, saying the death toll was the highest since 1994 when scores of reporters died in the Rwandan genocide.