Three Israeli soldiers and four Hamas group members were killed in clashes in the Gaza Strip near its main fuel terminal on Wednesday, the Israeli military and Hamas said. Reuters quoted an Israeli army spokeswoman as saying that three soldiers had been killed and Israeli forces had shot several Palestinian gunmen during the fighting. Hamas said Israeli soldiers, backed by helicopters, killed four members from the Islamist group during fighting east of Gaza City, a few hundred metres (yards) from the Nahal Oz fuel terminal, which straddles the border and is used to supply fuel to the territory. "Raiding our areas will never be a picnic," Abu Ubaida, a spokesman for Hamas's armed wing, told a news conference in the Gaza Strip.
