The Israel Defense Forces on Monday evening killed three Palestinian gunmen a few hundred meters away from the security fence between Gaza and Israel, close to the northern Gaza town of Jebaliya.
The IDF said the Palestinian militants were trying to infiltrate into Israel.
After an Israel Air Force strike killed one of the group of militants, soldiers from the Givati infantry brigade charged and killed the remaining gunmen. None of the IDF troops were hurt.
The Givati soldiers, who operate in the area, found upon the bodies of militants AK-47 assault rifles, grenades, and an RPG anti-tank rocket launcher.
In Gaza, the Islamic Jihad said it sent three armed men to attack the Israeli military post at the Erez checkpoint in northern Gaza late Monday, and they clashed with IDF troops.
In recent days, Palestinian militants have repeatedly attacked crossing points between Gaza and Israel. In response, Israel has closed the crossings, cutting off most food, fuel and other vital supplies to Gaza.
The IDF strikes came after a four-year-old boy was lightly wounded in a Qassam rocket attack on a western Negev kibbutz.
The boy was hurt by shrapnel from the rocket, which had been launched by Palestinian militants in northern Gaza. The Qassam struck in Kibbutz Gevim, close to the rocket-weary town of Sderot. He was treated on the scene by Magen David Adom emergency services.
Early Monday, IDF troops killed two Palestinians in two separate air strikes across the Gaza Strip.
One of the Palestinians was killed in a strike that targeted a vehicle in the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.
A second strike on Beit Hanoun, in the northern Strip, killed a Hamas militant.
An IDF spokeswoman confirmed an operation had taken place near Beit Hanoun, a border town frequently used by Palestinian factions to launch rockets at Israek.
IDF forces shot two gunmen who tried to attack them and detained more than 30 Palestinians for interrogation before withdrawing, the military spokeswoman said.
Palestinian hospital officials said the body of a Hamas gunman had been retrieved from the scene of the fighting. He had been hit by tank shell, they said.
Eight other Palestinians were wounded in the strikes.
The four-year-old hurt at Kibbutz Gevim had just returned from a trip to the North with his parents, and was wounded as they were parking their car. The rocket caused damage to the windows of houses in the area.
Meanwhile, six Hamas militants were killed over the weekend in a series of IAF strikes on Gaza following the Islamist group's attack on the Kerem Shalom crossing which left more than a dozen IDF soldiers wounded. Hamas' initial plan, to abduct soldiers, was thwarted by the army.
Also over the weekend, two of the Palestinian teenagers wounded in an IAF attack last Wednesday succumbed to their wounds.
The IAF struck Gaza three times following the attack on Kerem Shalom. Three of the militants killed in a weekend strike on Rafah had apparently planned the attack on the crossing.
