At least five Palestinians were killed in clashes with the Israeli army in the eastern Gaza City on Monday morning, local witnesses and medics said.

The witnesses said sounds of armed clashes were heard on Monday morning near Karni commercial crossing point in the eastern Gaza city and that Apache helicopters hovered in the area.

Gaza emergency chief Mo'aweya Hassanein confirmed that five Palestinians were killed and five wounded in an Israel air strike on a group of militants east of Gaza City.

Meanwhile, informed sources said a group of militants were on their way to carry out "an operation" against Israel before the army spotted them and encircled them. The militants were riding horses.

The gunmen and the Israeli troops engaged each other for nearly half an hour. The sources did not give more information about the number and the faction that the assailants belonged to.

No one has claimed responsibility for the attack, which was the first big attack since the end of a 22-day Israeli military offensive on the Gaza Strip that ended on Jan. 18 and left around 1,450 people killed.

The witnesses said dozens of militants riding horses, with others driving booby-trapped and arms-laden vehicles, attacked Israeli army forces on the border between eastern Gaza City and Israel.

They said Israeli soldiers heavily clashed with the militants, and sounds of explosions were heard in the area, adding that an Israeli helicopter struck a group of militants which were trying to kidnap an Israeli soldier.

The attack was carried out as more than 50,000 Gaza high school students were having their first day of final exams, while Israel had decided to partially reopen three main Gaza Strip commercial crossings.

(Xinhua News Agency June 8, 2009)