GAZA, (Reuters) – Three Israeli soldiers and four Hamas gunmen were killed in clashes in the Gaza Strip near its main fuel terminal on Wednesday, the Israeli military and Hamas said.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said three soldiers had been killed and Israeli forces had shot several Palestinian gunmen during the fighting.

Hamas said Israeli soldiers, backed by helicopters, killed four militants from the Islamist group during fighting east of Gaza City, a few hundred metres (yards) from the Nahal Oz fuel terminal, which straddles the border and is used to supply fuel to the territory. “Raiding our areas will never be a picnic,” Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for Hamas’s armed wing, told a news conference in the Gaza Strip.

Israel stopped fuel deliveries to the Hamas-controlled territory last week after an attack on the fuel terminal killed two Israeli civilians.

Fuel supplies to the Gaza Strip’s main power station did not resume as expected on Wednesday due to Israeli security concerns, European and Palestinian officials said.

Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip after routing forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in June.

Israel frequently carries out air strikes and raids against militants in Gaza in what it says is an effort to stop them launching rockets into southern Israeli towns.