Israel launches attacks in Gaza

Gazans are struggling to recover from the three-week conflict.

Israel has carried out an air attack in the Gaza Strip and launched an incursion with tanks and bulldozers across the border.

There is heavy fighting near Khan Younis in southern Gaza, with many people fleeing their homes.

The incursion follows a bomb attack which killed one Israeli soldier and wounded three near the Gaza border.

It is the worst violence since Israel's offensive against Hamas in Gaza ended with both sides declaring ceasefires.

No group has said it carried out Tuesday's bomb attack on an Israeli patrol near the border crossing of Kissufim.

One Israeli officer was badly wounded in the explosion and the other soldiers were lightly wounded, an army spokesman said.

Medics in Gaza said a Palestinian farmer was killed by Israeli gunfire following the attack.

There is now heavy fighting going on in Khan Younis, south of the Kissufim crossing.

Palestinian sources say 20 Israeli tanks and seven army bulldozers have made an incursion.

Two people were also wounded in an Israeli air strike in Khan Younis.

Hospital sources say one was a member of Hamas' Popular Resistance Committee who was on a motorbike at the time, and the other was a passer-by.

US visit

Israel has closed border crossings into Gaza because of the attack on the patrol, Israeli officials said, stopping the flow of aid supplies to Gaza's 1.5 million residents.

Aid agencies have been struggling to meet the urgent needs of tens of thousands of displaced, homeless and injured people in Gaza.

Last month Israel launched a 22-day offensive against Hamas, in a effort to stop rocket attacks on its territory.

There has been Israeli artillery and naval fire against Gaza targets since the ceasefires were announced earlier this month.

The fresh violence comes as US President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy, George Mitchell, arrives in the region to seek a more permanent truce.

He will hold talks with Egyptian officials, who have been mediating between Israel and Hamas, before travelling on to Jerusalem and Ramallah