JERUSALEM -- Israeli troops and armor backed by helicopters crossed into the Gaza Strip yesterday and clashed with Palestinian militants, killing 11, in the most recent in a series of raids into the coastal territory since it was taken over by Hamas.
An Israeli army spokeswoman said troops advanced about a half-mile into central Gaza, near the Maghazi and Bureij refugee camps, to look for rocket squads and tunnels used by militants.
Hamas gunmen planted explosives and fired rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. Two soldiers were wounded when their armored bulldozer was hit, the army said. Israeli forces responded with tank fire and airstrikes.
Hamas said six of its members were killed, including the group's field commander in the central Gaza Strip. The Hamas security force said one of its members was killed, and another of the dead was identified as a member of Islamic Jihad.
Medics said more than a dozen people were wounded.
Video images showed a cameraman for Hamas television wounded by gunfire and then shot twice more in the legs from afar as he lay on the ground. Hospital officials said both legs of the cameraman, Imad Ghanem, were amputated.
An Israeli army spokesman said the military was looking into the incident. A military official said the army does not consider cameramen for Hamas television to be journalists.
"They are part of Hamas' operational forces," he said. "They collect intelligence, document attacks against our forces and are sometimes with squads of armed men. At times they are armed themselves."
Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, prime minister of a unity government dismissed by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, condemned what he called Israel's "military escalation" and "criminal massacre."
Militants fired three rockets at southern Israel, and one landed near a kibbutz, but there were no casualties, the army said. Mortar rounds were fired at the Erez Crossing between the Gaza Strip and Israel, and two landed on the Israeli side, but there were no injuries.
Israeli military commentators said the army operations were aimed at preventing a Hamas buildup near the border with Israel, including the digging of tunnels for cross-border attacks.
Joel Greenberg writes for the Chicago Tribune.