Israeli troops kill 2 Palestinians in Gaza raid

GAZA, Sep 20 (Reuters) Israeli soldiers killed two Palestinians today in fighting during an incursion into the Gaza Strip, local ambulance workers and hospital officials said.

Gunmen confronted the Israeli force and set off explosives, and an Israeli helicopter also took part in the clashes, the medical crews said.

Ambulance workers in Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip said they retrieved the body of one Palestinian, who was not immediately identified.

A second man, identified as a 22-year-old militant, was also killed in the raid, hospital officials said.

An Israeli military spokesman in Tel Aviv said an Israeli force shot a gunman during ''activity against a terrorist infrastructure'' in the Gaza Strip.

Israel pulled soldiers and settlers out of the coastal territory in 2005 but has continued to carry out raids in the area to try to curb cross-border rocket attacks by Palestinian militants.

REUTERS GT RK2108