The Israeli military has shelled an area of Gaza City after an attack by Palestinian fighters at the Nahal Oz border crossing in the northern part of Gaza.

Raed El-Erini, a spokesperson at the Al Shifa Hospital in Gaza, said that at least three people were killed on Wednesday when a house in the Al Shegaeya neighbourhood was hit.

Six people were reportedly injured.

Two Israeli civilians and two Palestinian fighters were killed in an exchange of fire after the Palestinians stormed the crossing, which is mainly used for the transit of fuel, earlier on Wednesday, Israeli police and medics said.

According to David Chater, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Jerusalem, a fuel shipment had passed through the area when a barrage of mortar shells were fired.

The fighters then broke through a fence and entered the crossing.

"An Israeli tank then fired at the Palestinians and two of the fighters were killed. Police said that two other Palestinians managed to escape back into Gaza," he said.

The Popular Resistance Committees, a part of the Islamic Jihad movement, was one of several groups that claimed responsibility for the attack.

Attempted abduction

Al Jazeera's Jacky Rowland, also reporting from Jerusalem, said that Israeli authorities believe that the fighters tried to abduct Israeli soldiers in the area.

"Word has come out that the fighters that stormed the crossing had attempted to kidnap the Israelis that were working there," she said.

"This was a very audacious attack, and a serious breach of security," she said.

"Israeli security officials do not want a repeat of the abduction of Gilad Shalit [Israeli soldier captured last year]."

Rowland also said that there are reports of a state of emergency being declared along the Gaza border.

Shortly after the battle, an Israeli military aircraft hit a vehicle carrying Islamic Jihad fighters, in Gaza City, injuring three people, one of them seriously, according to Palestinian medics.

PHOTO CAPTION

Palestinians crowd around a car after an Israeli air strike killed one man in Gaza City, Wednesday, April 9, 2008.

Al-Jazeera