radioJERUSALEM, (Islamweb & News Agencies) -Three Israeli soldiers were injured early Wednesday when a booby-trap exploded near the border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt, Israeli public radio said.
One of the soldiers was seriously hurt and the other two sustained light injuries, the radio said.
The blast occurred hours before Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres were due to meet to discuss how to consolidate a shaky ceasefire.
Previous attacks on Israeli soldiers and settlers considered prime targets by Palestinian Resistance men waging a year long revolt against Israeli occupation have led to the postponement of the meeting several times in the past. (Read photo caption below)
Senior Israeli officials said the Peres-Arafat talks would still take place at 9:30 a.m. (3:30 a.m. EDT) at Gaza airport, even though the attack marred Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's precondition for 48 hours without fire before the meeting.
The Israeli occupation army said the soldiers were wounded by a bomb planted in a tunnel next to the Thermit occupation army post in southern Gaza, near the border with Egypt. The explosion also damaged the military base.
Palestinian security officials said a fierce gun battle erupted after the explosion and five Palestinians were wounded, including nearby residents. But no-one was seriously hurt, they said.
The Peres-Arafat meeting at Gaza airport, a few minutes' drive from the site of Wednesday's attack, is intended to broker a truce after a year of fighting in which more than 700 people have been killed.
The United States is pressuring both sides to end the violence as it tries to recruit Arab and Islamic countries into an anti-terror coalition after the devastating attacks on September 11 in New York and Washington.

PHOTO CAPTION:
An unidentified wounded Israeli border policeman is carried into a hospital in the coastal Israeli town of Ashkelon on Friday Sept. 14, 2001. Palestinians fired on a military post near a Jewish settlement and grenades were thrown at the entrance to an industrial zone, injuring two Israeli border policemen, the army said. (AP Photo/Gadi Kabalo)Saturday : 15 / 9 / 2001