The New Nation - Internet Edition

Reuters, Gaza

Israeli air strikes killed four Palestinian militants on Friday in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, as Egyptian forces began closing the severed border, curbing the stream of Gazans breaching the Israeli blockade.

Egyptian forces began placing barbed wire near the collapsed steel wall early on Friday and began blocking Palestinians from entering Egyptian soil, causing some scuffles between the Gazans and the Egyptians, witnesses said. The witnesses said stones were thrown at the Egyptian forces, who responded with beating some Palestinians with clubs and firing several shots in the air. Violence also flared in the occupied West Bank where two Palestinians and an Israeli border policeman were shot dead on Thursday.

Israel's deputy defence minister said the Jewish state wanted to cut its links with the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip after militants blasted open the territory's border fence with Egypt.