IDF denies killing Hamas gunmen in north Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces categorically denied killing two Hamas gunmen in Gaza on Tuesday, after the Palestinian Islamist group and medical officials accused the army of having slain the men with tank fire.

A military spokeswoman said: "There was no attack by the Israel Defense Forces in the Gaza Strip."

The army relayed that while an explosion was heard near the security fence along the border, the IDF had no involvement in the incident.

Hamas and the medics initially said the militants, two Hamas gunmen standing guard on the Gaza Strip's northern frontier, were killed in an Israel Air Force strike, before claiming that it was in fact a tank shell that caused the deaths.

There have been sporadic Palestinian short-range rocket attacks on Israel since the end of its December-January offensive against Hamas, often carried out by non-Hamas factions. Israel has generally responded with air strikes against infrastructure, causing few casualties.

Hamas said the gunmen killed on Tuesday had been deployed in night-lookout positions east of the town of Jabalya, close to the Israeli border.

Medical officials said their bodies bore wounds from heavy ordnance.

Egypt discovers 2 tons of explosives near Gaza border

Earlier Tuesday, Egyptian police discovered two tons of explosives hidden near the border with the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Egyptian security forces said.

The discovery was the second in the last three days in Rafah, a town close to the Egypt-Gaza border.

An Egyptian source, who declined to be named, reported that Egyptian police thwarted an attempt on Sunday to smuggle 500 kg of explosives into Gaza. In addition, police discovered on Monday the entrances to four tunnels used for smuggling.

"The Egyptian police received information about some smugglers storing these explosives in the area of Sarsuriyah near to the border between Egypt and Gaza," another source said.

Some 400 tunnel entrances have been discovered by Egyptian police this year. They are usually blocked off or blown up.

Last Tuesday, three Palestinians were killed in an Israel Air Force strike on smuggling tunnels in the southern Gaza Strip. The Israel Defense Forces confirmed the attack, saying it came in response to two mortar shells fired at the western Negev from Gaza.

Gaza's smuggling tunnels, which still number in the hundreds despite air attacks and an Egyptian crackdown in which some have been blown up or flooded, are a frequent target of Israeli retaliation for attacks by Gaza's armed Palestinian groups.

Smugglers send weapons and goods through tunnels to Gaza to circumvent an Israeli-led blockade.