Israeli forces killed five Palestinian militants who were trying to cross into Israel from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip on Monday, as Egypt intensified its mediation to rescue an inter-reconciliation dialogue between rival Fatah and Islamic Hamas movement.

Palestinian security sources said the militants were on their way to carry out "a joint military operation" against Israel before the army spotted them and encircled them.

Some of the militants were on horsebacks, and others driving arms-laden cars for the attack aimed at kidnapping Israeli soldiers, said the sources.

The gunmen and the Israeli troops engaged each other for nearly half an hour, said the sources, adding that no further information was available about the number of gunmen or the factions they belonged to.

Sounds of armed clashes and explosions were heard, as Apache helicopters hovered over the area.

Gaza emergency chief Mo'aweya Hassanein told Xinhua that five Palestinian militants were killed, and one injured early on Monday morning during armed clashes with Israeli forces near the border between eastern Gaza city and Israel.

Witnesses living in the area said the five militants were killed by an air-to-ground missile fired from an Israeli helicopter, according to Hassanein.

So far, no one claimed responsibility for the attack on an Israeli army force near the commercial crossing of Karni, east of Gaza City, the largest since Israel ended a 22-day military offensive in the Gaza Strip on January 18.

However, initial reports said a small Gaza-based radical group called Jond Allah, or the Knights of God, was responsible for the assault, but no official announcement was available.

Meanwhile, an Israeli army spokesman said in a statement that a gun battle erupted after a group of Palestinian militants opened fire on an Israeli army patrol on the Israeli side of the border near the border crossing of Karni, opposite the Israeli village of Kfar Aza.

Moreover, Ismail Haneya, the deposed prime minister of Hamas movement that rules Gaza, told reporters that "the Israeli shelling on Gaza shows the Israeli aggressive intentions towards the Gaza Strip."

But Hani Habib, a Palestinian academic at al-Azhar University in Gaza, told Xinhua, "the attack will have a negative impact on the efforts exerted by Egypt to mediate between Fatah and Hamas to reach a reconciliation agreement."

"It will also affect the fragile truce reached with Israel in January, and would encourage Israel to keep its blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip," Habib said.

Right after the attack, Israel announced that the three main crossing points between Gaza and Israel had been shut down. Israel has earlier said the three crossings would be partially reopened for food, fuel and humanitarian aides.

Habib said under the current circumstances, Israel may escalate its military actions on the Gaza Strip, which would complicate the situation and make it hard to resume the dialogue in Cairo and resume the peace talks with the Palestinian National Authority.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian source close to Hamas movement, informed Xinhua that Hamas politburo chief Khaled Meshaal will arrive in Cairo on Monday to discuss internal Palestinian crisis with Egyptian mediators,

The source, a Gaza-based Hamas official who asked his name not to be revealed, said a senior delegation will accompany Meshaal in his visit which aims at exploring the chances of resuming reconciliation talks between Hamas and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah party.

Meshaal received an Egyptian invitation along with a group of Hamas officials to visit Cairo for a two-day talk after Egypt held separate talks with Fatah, the source added.

Haneya also said in the day that intense talks between his Islamic group, Fatah and the Egyptian mediators were underway to stop Palestinian feud from deterioration.

The talks aimed at dealing with the aftermaths of deadly clashes between Hamas militants and forces loyal to Abbas in the West Bank, which have killed four Hamas fighters, four policemen and one civilian.

The standoff "casts a harmful shadow over the Palestinian dialogue," Haneya told reporters in Gaza, referring to mutual negotiations between his movement and Fatah, which Egypt has been hosting since February.

(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2009)