GAZA CITY, April 9: Two Israeli civilians and seven Palestinians were killed on Wednesday in an explosion of violence on the Gaza Strip border after Palestinian commandos stormed into Israel.

The attack came after early morning fighting left an Israeli soldier and a Palestinian gunman dead, shattering a month-long lull that followed a bloody Israeli blitz on Gaza aimed at halting rocket fire.

The Israeli army said Palestinian fighters, under cover of mortar fire, breached the border near the Nahal Oz terminal that provides Gaza with its fuel supplies, and moved into Israel.

The militants shot dead two Israelis working at the terminal in what the army called a “failed abduction attempt.” Islamic Jihad and two smaller militant groups claimed responsibility, but the Israeli government said Hamas, the Islamist group controlling Gaza, was ultimately responsible.

The army said two militants were killed at the border, with a senior official saying they were hit by tank fire as they fled back to Gaza.

An air strike aimed at militants fleeing the border battle hit a vehicle carrying Islamic Jihad militants, wounding three, and a second near a petrol station in Gaza City killed a militant and a civilian, medics said.

A third air strike in Gaza City later wounded another three people, they said.

Israeli tanks rolled into Gaza through Nahal Oz after the assault, and three Palestinian civilians were killed, including a 15-year-old boy, when an artillery round slammed into a nearby house, medics said.

Another three people were wounded, including a teenage girl, they said.

Hamas did not claim the border attack but its armed wing said it fired three homemade rockets at the crossing after the battle, the first time it has claimed an attack on Israel since the beginning of March.

Israel has put responsibility for the day’s incidents on Hamas, which has ruled Gaza since routing forces loyal to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in June, and has vowed to retaliate.

“Hamas clearly controls the Gaza Strip. They are directly responsible for this attack and we will hold them accountable,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s spokesman Mark Regev said.

Wednesday’s attack was claimed by Islamic Jihad, the Popular Resistance Committees and the Mujahedeen, a little-known group which claimed to be linked to Abbas’s Fatah party.

Spokesmen from Islamic Jihad and the PRC said the operation was aimed at seizing Israeli soldiers.

“This martyrdom operation followed the operation in which we killed a soldier at Khan Yunis and it will be followed by other operations to respond to Israeli aggressions and crimes,” said Islamic Jihad’s Abu Ahmed.

A gunbattle had erupted before dawn on Wednesday near the border fence east of the southern town of Khan Yunis, killing an Israeli soldier and a Hamas militant.

On Tuesday, an Israeli troops uncovered a tunnel shaft in a house some 700 metres (yards) from the border.

A similar tunnel was used by Gaza militants who carried out a deadly raid on an army post on the border in June 2006 and seized Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit, who is still held by Hamas.

The two sides had refrained from engaging in any major attacks for several weeks following a massive Israeli military assault on Gaza launched in late February that left 130 Palestinians and five Israelis dead.

Following the Hamas takeover of Gaza, Israel cut the Strip off from all but vital humanitarian goods in a bid to halt rocket attacks, but continued to supply fuel to Gaza through Nahal Oz.—AFP