GAZA CITY, Jan 27: An Israeli soldier was killed by a bomb on the border with the Gaza Strip on Tuesday and troops then killed a Palestinian, in violence that strained a ceasefire and left people in Gaza fearing further Israeli attacks.

Ten days after Israel halted a devastating, three-week air and ground offensive that killed 1,300 people in the enclave, neither the ruling Hamas movement nor its smaller allies claimed responsibility for the attack on an Israeli patrol.

But on the day that US President Barack Obama’s new envoy arrived in the Middle East bearing a message that the “moment is ripe” for peace talks, Israeli leaders facing an election in two weeks promised voters they would hit back hard.

They won backing from Hillary Clinton, Obama’s new secretary of state, who said Israel had a right to defend itself against rockets that Hamas has fired from Gaza over recent years.

“I don’t care who fired,” said Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who is leading the ruling party in the campaign for the Feb 10 ballot. “Hamas controls Gaza and is responsible for everything that happens. Whenever they fire at me from Gaza, set off a bomb or launch a missile or smuggle (weapons), Israel will respond.”

Some hours later, a senior militant from the Hamas-allied Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) was wounded, along with a bystander, in an Israeli air strike, militants and medics said.

The missile targeted the man as he was riding a motorcycle.

Residents near Deir Al-Balah, in the central Gaza Strip close to where the soldier was killed, said that by the evening tanks and armoured bulldozers were manoeuvring around orchards and wells, causing damage in a familiar punitive tactic.

Although not claiming responsibility, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri praised the bomb attack on the troops as “a natural response to the crimes of the occupier”. Two Palestinians were killed last week in incidents blamed on Israeli fire.

The early morning skirmishing was the bloodiest since the 22-day Israeli offensive ended in ceasefire declarations. The Israeli military said a bomb was detonated against its forces on the Israeli side of the border fence near the Kissufim crossing, killing one soldier and wounding another three.—Reuters