An Israeli soldier has been killed near the separation wall between Israel and the Gaza Strip, despite efforts to broker a truce after a week of Israeli military action.

Three other soldiers were injured when a bomb detonated in the path of an Israeli patrol near the Kissufim crossing on Thursday, an Israeli military spokesman said.

Al Jazeera received a statement from the Ahmed Abu al-Rish Brigades, a Fatah-aligned armed group, claiming to have planted explosive devices near the border overnight.

Israeli helicopters landed at the scene and ambulances rushed to evacuate casualties.

Exchange of fire

After the explosion, tanks stormed into Gaza near the town of Deir Al-Balah, with an exchange of gunfire erupting between the soldiers and Palestinian fighters, witnesses said.

Israeli military jets were also reported to have fired on the area indiscriminately.

One Palestinian was killed and another wounded in an Israeli air raid in the northern town of Jabaliya several hours later, Palestinian medical workers said.

Israeli forces had withdrawn from northern Gaza on Monday after a series of deadly raids targeting Palestinian rocket crews left more than 125 people dead - half of them civilians, according to medical officials.

Fighting has persisted sporadically since.

Hamas-Egypt talks

The Israeli soldier's death at the Kissufim crossing came on a day delegations from Hamas and Islamic Jihad crossed the border at Rafah into Egypt for talks on the situation.

Hamas officials said Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas leader, was heading its delegation in El-Arish.

Khader Habib, an Islamic Jihad leader, said the group sent a team to Egypt for "talks about calm".

"The conditions are clear, the Zionist enemy must end all forms of aggression against our people in Gaza and the West Bank and lift the siege on Gaza," he told the Reuters news agency.

At the same time, David Welch, the US Middle East envoy, was in Cairo meeting Ahmed Abul Gheit, the foreign minister, to discuss how a ceasefire could be achieved, the Egyptian foreign ministry said.

The last time Israel and Hamas agreed to a mediated truce was in November 2006, after a five-month Israeli offensive in Gaza that followed the seizure of an Israeli soldier by militants.

Thursday's developments follow the latest visit by Condoleezza Rice, the US secretary of state, to the region, during which she said that she had secured a pledge from Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks.

PHOTO CAPTION

The wreckage of an Israeli army jeep is seen along the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip.

Al-Jazeera