Gaza: A group using the Islamist name Tawhid-wa-Jihad (Monotheism and Struggle) distributed a two-minute video showing an Israeli army jeep engulfed by an explosion as it drove along a Gaza border road on Tuesday (January 27).
The footage, distributed by Ramattan, a Palestinian news agency in Gaza, captured an explosion of a bomb on the Israeli border with the Gaza Strip, in which an Israeli soldier was killed.
As other soldiers arrived at the rural scene on foot they came under rifle fire and were then obscured by a second heavy blast.
Troops then killed a Palestinian, in violence that strained a ceasefire and left people in Gaza fearing further Israeli attacks. The early morning skirmishing was the bloodiest since the 22-day Israeli offensive ended in ceasefire declarations.
The Israeli military said a bomb was detonated against its forces on the Israeli side of the border fence near the Kissufim crossing, killing one soldier and wounding another three.
Israeli fire shortly afterwards in the same area killed a Palestinian
who medics said was a 27-year-old farmer.
Palestinians living near Kissufim crossing told Reuters they saw at least two gunmen move up toward the border fence in the morning mist.
They later heard explosions and gunfire. On the day that US President Barack Obama's envoy arrived in the Middle East bearing a message that the "moment is ripe" for peace talks, Israeli leaders facing an election in two weeks promised voters they would hit back hard.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said Israel would exact a "very heavy blow" for their attacks.
"We will not allow Hamas and its allies to continue with hostile actions and we will respond," Barak said at a business conference in Tel Aviv. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Israel had a right to defend itself against rocket attacks from Gaza.
Some hours after the attack on the Israeli troops, a senior militant from the Hamas-allied Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) was wounded, along with a bystander, in an Israeli air strike, militants and medics said.
The missile targeted the man as he was riding a motorcycle. Residents near Deir al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip close to where the soldier was killed, said that towards evening tanks and armoured bulldozers were manoeuvring around orchards and wells, causing damage in a familiar punitive tactic.
Although not claiming responsibility, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri praised the bomb attack on the troops as "a natural response to the crimes of the occupier". Two Palestinians were killed last week in incidents blamed on Israeli fire.
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