Israeli forces on Thursday wounded and arrested a Palestinian near the border in southeast Gaza Strip, Israeli sources said.

Palestinian residents in east of Rafah city in southern Gaza Strip confirmed that they heard the sound of small arms fire.

The Israeli sources said the injured guy was a militant who tried to plant a mine near the security fence that separates Israel and the Palestinian-controlled territories. He was moderately wounded and taken to a hospital in Be'er Sheva city, the sources continued.

The shooting coincided with two incursions that sparked rocket-fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel.

Ezz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Islamic Hamas movement, said its fighters exchanged fire with Israeli special troops that infiltrated the outskirts of al-Zaytoun neighborhood in southeast Gaza city.

"We fired three mortars on the invading forces and three Qassam rockets into the Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip," the brigades said in a statement faxed to the media.

There were no reports of casualties in the clashes or the rocket attacks.

Later in the morning, Israeli tanks and bulldozers rolled 700 meters into the east of al-Maghazi refugee camp in Central Gaza Strip, witnesses said.

The tension renewed after Israel rebuffed Egyptian efforts to broker a ceasefire with Hamas. Israel decided not to engage in a ceasefire unless Hamas, which controls Gaza, releases Gilad Shalit, a soldier who was captured in 2006.

Hamas says Shalit's case is separated from the ceasefire's talks because Israel must release Palestinian prisoners in exchange for the soldier.