Palestine's Ministry of Health says at least three Palestinians have been killed on Wednesday in an assault carried out by Israel in east Gaza.
Ashraf al Qidra, a spokesman for the Gaza health ministry, confirmed the deaths, but he did not provide the names or ages of the slain Palestinians.
However, the website The Palestinian Information Center reported that the ministry had identified the three as being Ahmad al Basous, 28, Obada Farwana, 29, and Mohammed al Areer, 27. It said that all of them were residents of Shuja iya neighborhood east of Gaza city.
It reported apart from the three that had died, a fourth person wasinjured when Israeli tanks opened fire on a "resistance post."
It also reported that Israeli artillery units shelled several positions allegedly associated with Hamas.
Israeli military said it had launched an assault on militant targets in the Gaza Strip after its troops on the border came under fire and that its forces were "targeting Hamas military posts."
It claimed that its troops had come under fire after turning away "Twenty children sent towards the border fence as a decoy."
Gaza residents reported hearing many explosions.
According to the Reuters news agency Hamas confirmed that the three Palestinians killed were its members, but no militant group claimed responsibility for shooting at Israeli troops.
Ceasefire broken
The assault comes a few days after Hamas, which governs Gaza, said it had agreed to a ceasefire with Israel to prevent weekend hostilities from escalating.
The ceasefire that came into effect four days ago was reportedly negotiated with the help of Egypt and the UN, but Israel had not confirmed the deal.
Israel and Hamas have fought three wars in the past decade.
The ceasefire followed events of last Friday when at least four Palestinians were killed on Friday by Israeli forces near the Gaza-Israel fence, according to Gaza's Health Ministry officials.
According to Israel, one of its soldiers was also killed by what it said were snipers in Gaza. It identified the soldier as Sergeant Aviv Levi.
The soldier was the first member of Israel's armed forces to be killed on the Gaza border since a 2014 war between Israel and Hamas.
Great March of Return
For almost four months, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have been holding almost daily demonstrations called "The Great March of Return" near the Gaza-Israel border.
Since the demonstrations began on March 30, more than 140 Palestinian protesters have been killed – and thousands more wounded – by Israeli army sniper fire.
Protesters have been demanding the "right of return" to their homes and villages in historical Palestine from which they were driven in 1948 to make way for the new state of Israel.
They are also demanding an end to the Israeli-Egyptian blockade of the Gaza Strip, which has gutted the coastal enclave's economy and deprived its roughly two million inhabitants of many basic commodities. Israel implemented its blockade 11 years ago when Hamas came to power in Gaza.
