Israeli forces killed one Palestinian and injured two others on Tuesday in the northern Gaza Strip.

Medics and witnesses said the three men were civilians, and that soldiers in an Israeli military post launched five shells towards the mainly agricultural area.

Gaza medical services spokesman Adham Abu Salmiya identified the slain as Amjad Sami Az-Za’aneen, 20, and said two others were moderately injured and transported to the Ash-Shifa Hospital in Gaza City for treatment.

An Israeli military spokeswoman said forces opened fire at a group of men who were handling a detonation device.

The attack followed a day of clashes as Israeli tanks and bulldozers entered two areas in the Gaza Strip, prompting retaliatory fire from armed factions.

Two factions said a joint operation fired on the northern force, while one faction claimed to have launched an attack at the southern troops.

Near Beit Hanoun, witnesses told Ma'an that there were four Israeli bulldozers and three military vehicles, while others told AFP that seven Israeli tanks and one bulldozer entered 400 meters into Palestinian territory.

Shortly after the reports surfaced, a statement was received by Ma'an from the Abu Ali Mustapha Brigades, the armed wing of the PFLP, and Fatah's Al-Aqsa Brigades, in which the groups announced a joint attack on an Israeli bulldozer.

The brigades said the attack caused the bulldozer to catch fire, and said immediately after the "sky filled with planes" looking for the attackers.

"The brigades will always fight to free Palestine," the statement said.

Second incident in south reported

In the south, next to the closed Sufa crossing, witnesses reported Israeli bulldozers digging up lands in the unilaterally-declared no-go zone, and said Palestinian resistance activists fired five mortar shells at the Israeli vehicles.

The military wing of the Islamic Jihad, the Al-Quds Brigades, said they had attacked an Israeli bulldozer in the south. They said in a statement that the fire was in retaliation for "ongoing Israeli aggressions."

An Israeli military spokesman said he could neither confirm nor deny any incursion, but later a spokeswoman told Ma'an that there were four mortar shells fired from Gaza which landed in the Eshkol Regional Council.

Israel has often demolished structures and cleared land along Gaza's border, citing security concerns.

Israel and Hamas are formally committed to a truce agreed after Israel's devastating 22-day Operation Cast Lead, which ended in January 2009.

But in recent months, militants have fired dozens of rockets into southern Israel, prompting retaliatory airstrikes by the Israeli military.