Israeli forces rolled a few hundred meters deep into Palestinian-controlled lands in southeast Gaza Strip on Tuesday, witnesses and local sources said.

Four tanks provided cover for six bulldozers which entered and started to flatten the cultivated fields in al-Shouka neighborhood in eastern Rafah city, the witnesses said.

Meanwhile, Israeli gunboats opened fire at Palestinian fishing boats off the coast in northern and southern Gaza Strip, to force the fishermen stay by shore, the sources said.

The Israeli incursion followed a tense day, when five Palestinian fighters were killed when they were trying to attack an Israeli army post on the eastern border of Gaza city.

Egyptian mediators failed to broker an official ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, which controls Gaza, after Israel completed a 22-day offensive against the coastal Palestinian territory on January 18.

(Xinhua News Agency June 10, 2009)