According to medics, four Palestinians were killed by Israeli troops on Sunday during an operation carried out east of the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah.

Three of the four men killed were identified as fighters of the Islamist Hamas movement which is ruling the Gaza Strip since last June. The fourth man was a civilian according to the medics.

Another six gunmen and a civilian were injured by the Israeli troops that were backed by aircraft, in the southern Gaza town of Rafah.

An Israeli military spokesman said: "The army is operating in the south of the Gaza Strip against the infrastructures of terrorist organizations... We attacked armed men," AFP reports.

According to witnesses, Israeli troops backed by helicopters attacked the area around town of Rafah which is near the border with the Egypt. This was the latest attack from a series of raids in recent weeks which targeted the militants.

At the same time, when the Israeli troops were carrying the operation in the southern part of the town, the Egyptian side of the crossing point with Gaza was hit by a rocket knocking down a wall from an Egyptian government administrative building. Nobody was injured during this action.

Here at Rafah is where tens of thousands of Palestinians crossed into Egypt last month.

The border was resealed by the Egyptians but is currently discussing with Hamas to reopen it.

Security sources said that experts are investigating what was the impact of the blast and to see what was the projectile and where it came from.