(dpa) -
The number of Palestinian militants killed in the latest violence at the start
of the Jewish Passover holiday rose to 13 while 16 Israeli soldiers were
reported injured, according to reports Sunday.
The number of militants killed in an Israeli missile attack on the northern
Gaza Strip on Saturday rose to six.
Meanwhile, two youths died Sunday of wounds sustained in an Israeli attack last
week, in which a cameraman for the Reuters news agency was also killed.
On Saturday, three militants from the Islamist Hamas movement were killed in
one of the heaviest bomb attacks on a border crossing in the Strip since Israel's withdrawal in the summer of 2005.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said 16 Israeli soldiers were injured, one
seriously, in the attack on the Kerem Shalom border crossing in the southern
Gaza Strip.
A spokesman for Hamas' military wing, al-Qassam Brigades, said the militants
had used three booby trapped cars, detonating two in the attack.
The Israeli army said the attack was followed by another at the southern border
crossing of Kissufim.
General Yoav Galant, in charge of the Israel's southern command, said the
clashes were the fiercest since Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in the
summer of 2005.
He added that the attacks on Kerem Shalom and Kissufim were well synchronized
and designed to kill as many Israeli soldiers as possible as well as capture
soldiers.
Hamas movement claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the aim of its
Operation Warning before the Explosion was to break the Israeli blockage on the
territory that has been in place since Hamas came to power in Gaza since
mid-June 2007.
The latest violence comes after Israel sealed off all Palestinian territories
for about a week due to the Passover holiday, when Jews mark the exodus of Jews
from Egypt in ancient times.
Also, Jimmy Carter, the former US president, will return to Israel on Monday, after having visited the country and the Palestinian Authority last week,
for one day. He received a frosty reception from Israel's main decision makers
during his last visit.
During the last week Carter, who brokered the Israeli-Egyptian peace in the
late 1970s, visited in Arab states.