Five Hamas fighters killed in an Israeli air raid have been buried in the Gaza Strip.

Several other people were wounded in the attack near the town of Khan Younis early on Saturday morning.

The Israeli army has killed 11 people in Gaza since Tuesday, when the Annapolis peace initiative started in the United States.

Israel, which carries out regular assaults on Gaza against fighters launching homemade rockets into Israel, said they began the raid after identifying armed men near the border.

Hamas said the dead men, members of the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, its armed wing, had been on a night patrol.

Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel have increased since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip in June.

Israel responded by largely closing off the territory and its 1.5 million people from the outside world.

It began reducing fuel supplies to Gaza last month and plans to begin scaling back electricity from Sunday.

Israel's supreme court ruled on Friday that the Israeli government can continue cutting fuel supplies to residents of Gaza but must postpone the planned electricity cut.

The ruling was in response to a legal challenge from a coalition of human rights groups that claims the policy constitutes collective punishment.

Gaza is dependent on Israel for all of its fuel and about half its electricity.

In January 2006, Hamas were democratically elected following Palestinian parliamentary elections in which they took 76 of the 132 seats in the chamber.

PHOTO CAPTION

Hamas fighters at a rally in Gaza (26 October 2007)