Gaza clashes leave four dead as Israel troops enter coastal strip

Fighting in the Gaza Strip left three Palestinians and an Israeli soldier dead Monday as Israeli forces crossed into the Palestinian territory to push Hamas gunmen back from the border.

In one incursion, Israeli tanks and helicopters shelled the town of Beit Hanoun, drawing anti-tank rocket fire from the armed wing of Hamas. An Israeli reservist, a Hamas fighter and a Palestinian civilian were reported killed in the clash. The reservist was the third Israeli soldier killed in Gaza this year.

Hamas said another of its gunmen was killed in a battle with Israeli troops in the southern Gaza city of Khan Yunis.

The Israeli raids have been unable to stop almost daily rocket fire by smaller militant groups that Israel says is tolerated by Hamas, the Islamic movement that governs Gaza and calls for Israel’s destruction.

Last week Israel stepped up the pressure on Hamas by authorizing cutbacks in fuel and electricity to Gaza. The fuel cutbacks started Sunday.

But on Monday, Israeli Atty. Gen. Menachem Mazuz ordered the government to suspend the threatened power cutbacks until it can reexamine the effect on Gaza’s 1.5 million people and assure that the reductions would not cause humanitarian harm.

The ruling responded to an Israeli Supreme Court inquiry into the government’s rationale for the sanctions after they were challenged by 10 Palestinian and Israeli human rights groups. Mazuz did not question the fuel cutbacks.

The European Union criticized both measures Monday as “collective punishment,” joining a chorus of criticism by the United Nations and other international agencies.