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AFP
Gaza City
Israeli forces unleashed a wave of strikes across the Gaza Strip on Friday after saying its troops came under fire, killing three Hamas members as fears grew of a wider conflict.
Fireballs exploded into the sky over the Palestinian enclave and Israel reported projectiles had been fired back at its territory, prompting the UN to urge all sides to step"back from the brink" after months of tensions.
A fourth Palestinian was also shot dead during protests along the frontier with Israel, Gaza's health ministry said.
The United Nations envoy for the Middle East peace process, Nickolay Mladenov, said"everyone in Gaza needs to step back from the brink. Not next week. Not tomorrow. Right NOW!"
"Those who want to provoke Palestinians and Israelis into another war must not succeed," he wrote on Twitter.
The Israeli army said aircraft and tanks struck back after troops came under fire during renewed protests along the Gaza-Israel frontier.
Hamas said three of its fighters were killed in strikes.
Air raids were continuing into the evening, with a number of explosions in different parts of Gaza, AFP correspondents said.
Israel's military said its aircraft and tanks targeted"eight military posts" belonging to Hamas and that the strikes formed part of a"wide-scale attack".
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