An explosion in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip has killed and injured Israeli troops from the Golani Brigade, who were detonating a building, according to Israeli websites.
There is currently an Israeli media blackout on the incident on Thursday and there has been no official comment from the government there yet.
Witnesses in Rafah told Al Jazeera of a large explosion, and Israeli helicopters trying to evacuate the wounded. There has been heavy fighting in the area, they said.
Al Jazeera’s Tareq Abu Azzoum, reports from Deir el-Balah, in central Gaza, that Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades says it is engaging in “fierce point-blank clashes and confrontations with Israeli occupation forces operating in the El Geneina neighbourhood east of Rafah city”.