Summary Two Palestinians were killed on Saturday and more than 20 wounded in Israeli shelling.
According to Palestinian sources, during clashes along the border, three soldiers were also hurt.
"Two Palestinians were killed and 22 others wounded, six of them seriously," said spokesman Yahya Khader of the Hamas government s emergency services in the Gaza Strip, updating an earlier toll.
Palestinian witnesses said earlier that Gaza militants fired a rocket at an Israeli jeep that exploded on the edge of the border, east of Gaza City, prompting the Israelis to respond with artillery fire.
Three soldiers were wounded, two of them seriously, Israeli military sources said, while army radio said the jeep was blown up by an anti-tank rocket. The army itself gave no early comment and there was no immediate claim of responsibility.
With tensions mounting in the border region, five Palestinians were also wounded in Israeli shelling near Khan Yunis in southern Gaza, Palestinian medics said.
"The occupation attacked Palestinian civilians east of Gaza City and Khan Yunis. We consider this escalation as very dangerous. It must stop immediately," said Fawzi Barhum, spokesman for the Hamas government which rules the impoverished territory.
On Thursday, a tunnel blast along the Gaza border wounded an Israeli soldier, in an attack claimed by Hamas s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, hours after a Palestinian teenager was shot dead by Israeli troops in the same area.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak said at the time his country would "examine how and when to respond."
An Egypt-brokered ceasefire went into force in the border zone on October 24 after 72 hours of bloodshed in which air strikes killed eight Palestinian militants and armed groups fired more than 100 rockets at Israel, wounding three people.
