IDF troops trade fire with militants near Gaza border

Israel Defense Forces soldiers Sunday exchanged fire with Palestinian militants who shot a rocket-propelled grenade at them near the Nahal Oz Israel-Gaza border crossing.

None of the soldiers was wounded in the incident, which took place near the northern Gaza Strip. The troops belonged to the Nahal infantry brigade.

In a separate incident earlier Sunday, IDF soldiers shot and wounded a Palestinian civilian who was approaching the Gaza fence.

The Palestinian was wearing a heavy coat on a hot day, raising suspicions, the army said, but he was not carrying weapons or explosives.

The man was later taken for treatment to a hospital in Ashkelon.

Late Sunday night, a Palestinian was killed and four Palestinians were wounded in an explosion under the border between southern Gaza and Egypt in a tunnel used for smuggling fuel, medical personnel and witnesses said.

Gaza emergency chief Mo'aweya Hassanein told reporters that Majid Abu Zuhri, 17, was killed and four others were wounded. The medical rescue team was still searching for a sixth missing person.

The tunnel is one used for smuggling fuel from Egypt to Gaza, witnesses said. The explosion was heard at the other side of the border controlled by Egypt, witnesses said.

Rafah residents said they saw flames bursting out from the tunnel following the explosion that was also heard in the town.

Palestinians have dug thousands of underground tunnels to smuggle goods and fuels from Egypt to the Gaza Strip after Israel and Egypt imposed a tight blockade on the enclave when Hamas seized power in 2007.

Gaza-based human rights groups said that more than 160 Palestinians have been killed either digging tunnels or during similar accidents.

Israel has bombarded hundreds of smuggling tunnels and Egyptian authorities have also destroyed dozens of tunnels.