An Islamic Jihad militant was killed and four civilians wounded in intensive shelling by Israeli tanks before dawn Wednesday in eastern Gaza city, witnesses and medics said, dpa reported.
Witnesses said tanks stationed at the border between Israel and eastern Gaza City fired three shells at a group of Islamic Jihad militants who were firing mortars at nearby Israeli ground forces.
They said that the first tank shell landed in the eastern Gaza city neighbourhood of Zeitoon, where one person was wounded. Two further tank rounds were fired when the militants kept lobbing mortar shells at the Israelis.
Residents said that at around midnight, they heard strong explosions following the tanks shelling, with local ambulances arriving at the scene hauling the casualties to Gaza's main Shiffa Hospital.
Gaza emergency spokesman Adham Abu Selmeya told reporters that a 22-year-old Palestinian was killed and four wounded, two of them seriously, by the tank shelling.
There was no immediate comment from Israeli forces on the incidents. The witnesses said the Israeli ground force was backed by Israeli strike-fighter jets and reconnaissance drones.
The Gaza Strip has been mostly calm in the last few weeks. The last escalation of violence between Israeli forces and militants from the coastal enclave, ruled by Islamic Hamas movement, was last month.
A fragile ceasefire, mediated by Egypt, had been reached recently between Israel and militants in Gaza. The fresh wave of violence erupted after Israeli ground forces entered eastern Gaza City.