Israeli tanks kill Palestinian militant in Gaza incursion: medics

Israeli tanks pushed into Gaza and killed a Palestinian militant on Saturday after the army lost two soldiers, in the heaviest clashes since the Gaza war ended 14 months ago, medics said. At least seven Palestinians were also wounded when a tank fired a shell in the village of Abbassan near the southern Gaza Strip city of Khan Yunis, Palestinian medics said. The Israeli military launched the incursion late on Friday after a firefight in which two of its soldiers were killed and two others wounded, one of them seriously. It was the worst spate of violence in the besieged Hamas-ruled coastal territory since the Gaza war of December 2008-January 2009. Villagers said tanks, bulldozers and jeeps spearheaded the late-night incursion backed by helicopters, drawing fire from fighters of Al-Quds Brigades, the armed wing of the Islamic Jihad militant group. A two-storey house was demolished and another damaged in the operation before the troops returned to the Israeli side of the border before dawn, residents said.