Israel has closed off the West Bank and Gaza for at least a week for the Jewish Passover holiday.

Israel launched air strikes and a ground raid on Gaza today exchanging fire with Palestinian gunmen, killing two militants and a 12-year old boy.

Israel killed four Hamas militants in a missile strike today, and moved artillery cannons to the Gaza border, part of a what it said would be a “crushing” response to the first major Hamas rocket barrage on Israeli towns since Israel’s pullout from Gaza two weeks earlier.

Israeli troops today shot and killed two Palestinians who had entered an unauthorised zone near a security barrier separating Gaza from Israel, army and Palestinian sources said.

Palestinian gunmen today killed two Israeli soldiers in an attack on an army post in the West Bank, while an Israeli helicopter firing machine guns killed two Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.