Bomb explodes near IDF patrol at Gaza border

Militants detonated a bomb near an Israel Defense Force patrol jeep on Israel's border with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, sources said Friday.

The militant group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) claimed responsibility in an e-mail sent to reporters.

The incident came just hours after IDF soldiers killed two Palestinian terrorists early Friday morning near the security fence along the Gaza-Israel border.

Military sources said there were no Israeli casualties in either incident.

The Islamic Jihad militant group, an ally of Hamas, said the two gunmen were members of its military wing.

The pre-dawn incident occurred near the Kerem Hashalom crossing, as IDF troops observed the Palestinians approaching the fence with the intention of planting an explosive device. The soldiers then opened fire, killing both Palestinians.

In addition to the explosives, a search of the bodies of the dead Palestinians turned up two AK-47 assault rifles and a number of grenades.

In recent months the IDF has successfully thwarted a number of such attempted terrorist attacks, particularly due to the heavy surveillance deployed around the Gaza Strip.

Most violent incidents in recent months have been claimed by small militant factions and not by Hamas, which might be trying to avoid provoking further Israeli retaliation.

Hamas has prevented recent terror attacks against Israel because it is scared of angering Egypt, according to Israeli and Palestinian Authority security sources.

Hamas has also acted recently to prevent the firing of Qassam rockets and mortars at Israel from the Gaza Strip, which the Islamist organization controls. The occasional rocket is still being fired but those responsible are smaller Palestinian factions that do not obey Hamas orders.

Hamas' actions can also be explained by a wish to maintain the relative calm between it and Israel in the past two months. The organization is still rebuilding military facilities damaged during the three-week Israel Defense Forces offensive in the Gaza Strip in January.

Inadvertent clash in West Bank

Palestinian police opened fire on IDF soldiers riding in an ice cream truck in the West Bank on Thursday, a Palestinian security source said. The shootout left two Israelis and a Palestinian wounded.

The overnight gunbattle appeared to be the latest instance of Israeli undercover forces clashing accidentally with increasingly active Western-backed PA security forces.

Israel's military command confirmed the soldiers were lightly wounded in the incident in Qalqilya, and said troops had arrested 26 Palestinian suspects in armed raids across the occupied territory early yesterday.

A senior Palestinian security source said police opened fire at the truck after it ignored orders to halt.

Israeli forces had not coordinated any military activity with the Palestinians, as they customarily do, the source said.