The Israeli army has carried out an incursion into the south of the Gaza Strip near Rafah, killing two activists of the Hamas movement, Palestinian hospital sources said.

The Israeli army confirmed the killings on Tuesday.

 "The soldiers operating in that sector spotted two suspects and opened fire. They were hit," an Israeli army spokesman said.

Hospital sources named the two as Mahmud Abu Taher and Baker Abu Rajal.

Tuesday's incident came a day after a Palestinian suicide bomber hit a shopping centre in the southern Israeli town of Dimona, killing an Israeli woman.

Three Palestinian factions - the loosely Fatah-affiliated al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Abu Ali Mustafa Brigades and the United Resistance Brigades - claimed responsibility for the bombing.

Police said they shot dead a second attacker before he had a chance to detonate his explosives belt.

The attack was the first suicide bombing on Israeli soil in just over a year.

Just hours after the suicide attack, three members of the Popular Resistance Committees were wounded in an Israeli air raid in the Gaza Strip.

 PHOTO CAPTION

Israeli soldier are seen during an operation in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Al-Jazeera