Two Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in Gaza Strip: ministry

Two Palestinians were killed by Israeli tank fire targeting an Islamic Jihad observation in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday, the enclave's health ministry and sources from the militant movement said.

Hussein al-Amour, 25, and Abdul Haleem al-Naqa, 28 were killed in the incident happened east of the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, a ministry spokesman said.

It came after overnight Israeli raids on Gaza that struck two Hamas targets in the enclave.

One of the targets, in the southern town of Rafah, was a facility of the Hamas movement's military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the sources said. The other they described only as a Hamas site in the centre of the strip.

The Israeli military said in a statement that its "fighter jets struck military targets in a compound belonging to the Hamas terror organisation in the southern Gaza Strip".

It did not confirm a second raid.

The statement said that the operation was in response to a brief incursion across the Gaza border earlier in the day by Palestinian protesters who immediately fled back into Palestinian territory.

It added that it that the strike was also in retaliation for repeated Palestinian attempts to damage the border fence and "security infrastructure" during ongoing border protests.

Israel has been condemned globally for its disproportionate use of force against the Palestinian protesters.

Mass protests erupted on 30 March - dubbed "Great Return March" - which have centred on the right of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes, after they were expelled following the 1948 creation of Israel.

The protests along the Gaza border quickly turned deadly, with Israeli forces responding with live ammunition. 

At least 1,600 protesters have been wounded by gunfire or needed treatment for tear gas inhalation in the weeks of protests.

The Israeli army has claimed that its forces only open fire in self-defence or to stop protesters attempting to breach the barrier separating the coastal enclave from Israel.

Only a few Israeli soldiers have suffered minor injuries.