Two Palestinians were killed in an Israeli air strike on the southern Gaza Strip, medical and security sources said.

A Palestinian ambulance driver said two bodies were found near Khouzaa in the southern Gaza Strip after the air strike.

Residents said the two men, ages 18 and 20, were members of the Popular Resistance Committees, a group that has carried out several deadly bombings on Israeli targets in the past.

Israeli military officials said their aircraft fired on Sunday at two Palestinians trying to lay a bomb near the Gaza-Israel security fence.

The resistance committees did not immediately comment on the incident.

A new Palestinian parliament was sworn in on Saturday, dominated by Hamas, after the Islamist movement's landslide general election victory on 25 January.

Mahmud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, is expected to hold talks in Gaza City later on Sunday to ask Hamas to head up the new government.

PHOTO CAPTION