Israeli air strikes kill five Gaza militants

GAZA (Reuters) - Israeli air strikes killed five Hamas gunmen in the northern Gaza Strip on Saturday, hours after militants from the Islamist group drove bomb-laden vehicles into an Israeli border crossing.

While violence raged, Hamas engaged in an internal debate over proposals by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter for a unilateral ceasefire with Israel and greater political flexibility, Palestinian politicians said.

Carter, who had talks in Damascus with Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal, demanded the group stop firing rockets into Israel while he pursues efforts with Israel and the West to lift a blockade on the Gaza Strip, politicians familiar with the discussions said.

Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in June from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah faction and opposes his U.S.-brokered peace negotiations with Israel.

In the northern Gaza Strip, four Hamas militants were killed when an Israeli aircraft fired at a group that approached the border fence with Israel, an Israeli army spokesman said.

A fifth militant was killed in a separate air strike near Jabalya refugee camp, Hamas said.

Earlier on Saturday, three Hamas militants were killed and 13 Israeli soldiers wounded in a bombing attack at Kerem Shalom in the southern Gaza Strip, the third major Palestinian assault in less than two weeks on border crossings.

A spokesman for Hamas's military wing said the attack marked the start of a campaign by the group to "break the siege", a reference to Israel's tightening of a Gaza blockade since the Islamist movement took power.

"NIHILISTIC AGENDA"

Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said the raid on the border terminal showed Hamas's "nihilistic agenda" and its "total and complete disregard for the welfare of the Palestinians living in the Gaza Strip".

Israeli forces in the area had been on high alert for Hamas assaults coinciding with the start of the Jewish holiday of Passover on Saturday.

An Israeli commander described the attack at Kerem Shalom --- used to transfer humanitarian goods and fuel to the Gaza Strip --- as the most ambitious since Israeli troops and settlers withdrew from the territory in 2005.

In incidents on Saturday before the border crossing attack, two Palestinians, including a Hamas militant and a civilian, were killed in separate Israeli air strikes in the Gaza Strip, Hamas said.

Israeli General Yoav Galant said he believed Hamas intended to kidnap Israeli soldiers at Kerem Shalom and take them into the Gaza Strip in armored vehicles.

In June 2006, Gaza militants abducted an Israeli soldier, Gilad Shalit, near the same crossing. Hamas wants to swap him for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

An Israeli army spokeswoman said two jeeps exploded in the attack, which was launched under cover of thick fog. She said troops captured a third vehicle.

Hamas's armed wing, the Izz el-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, said a total of four vehicles packed with explosives attacked Kerem Shalom and three exploded. Militants fired mortar bombs and automatic weapons as a diversion.

Violence at the Gaza border has increased in recent days.

On Wednesday, 17 Palestinians, most of them civilians, including a Reuters cameraman, and three Israeli soldiers were killed in the bloodiest day in more than a month.

(Writing by Jeffrey Heller; Editing by Andrew Dobbie)