An Israeli air strike on Tuesday, March 11, killed three Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip, the Islamic Jihad group said, according to Reuters.

The Israeli military said an Israeli aircraft targeted Islamic Jihad members who had fired a mortar bomb at its forces, and "direct hits were confirmed".

Islamic Jihad said its men had attacked Israeli troops who had entered the Gaza Strip through Israel's border fence.

Earlier, the territory's ruling Hamas Islamist movement said an Israeli drone had crashed on the Gaza side of the frontier. The military said the drone came down because of a technical malfunction.

Israel pulled its troops and settlers out of the Gaza Strip in 2005, but maintains a naval and air blockade of the enclave and severely restricts the overland movement of people and goods across the volatile border.