GAZA, (Reuters) – The Israeli army shot dead two Palestinian militants and wounded a third on the border with Israel in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday, local ambulance staff said.

The Israeli army confirmed that in two separate incidents after midnight in the same spot near Kissufim junction, soldiers spotted Palestinian men laying devices near the border fence and opened fire, hitting three of them.

An army spokeswoman said one man was being questioned.

There was no claim of responsibility from any Palestinian militant organisation.

The incident was the latest in a series of clashes between the Israeli army and Palestinian militants in the past week.

Israeli soldiers killed at least five Palestinians on Thursday during a raid in the occupied West Bank city of Nablus.

The raid aimed against Palestinian militants was the army’s biggest since the militant Islamist group Hamas won parliamentary elections last month.