March 07, 2008	Friday	Safar 28, 1429

GAZA CITY, March 6: An Israeli soldier was killed on the edge of the Gaza Strip on Thursday in a blast claimed by militants, as efforts gathered pace to broker a truce after a week of bloodletting in the Hamas-run territory.

“An Israeli soldier was killed and three others wounded, including one seriously, by an explosion of a device that was set off in the path of a patrol near the security fence in the central Gaza Strip,” an army spokesman said.

Witnesses reported seeing an army jeep in flames after a series of blasts around a military post near the Kissufim crossing in central Gaza.The radical Islamic Jihad group claimed the attack.

Following the attack, Israeli troops moved into Gaza, exchanging fire with militants near the town of Deir Al-Balah. An Israeli air strike in the north of the territory killed one Palestinian and wounded another, medics said.

The violence erupted as international efforts were under way in neighbouring Egypt with the aim of brokering a truce in and around Gaza after an escalation of violence that has killed some 130 people in eight days.

Delegations from Hamas and Islamic Jihad crossed the Rafah border into Egypt to discuss situation in Gaza.—AFP