Hamas security forces survey the scene of an explosion in the northern Gaza Strip, Dec. 12, 2017. Photo: Reuters / Mohammed Salem.

Two Palestinian Islamic Jihad members riding on a motorcycle in the Gaza Strip were killed in an explosion on Tuesday, health officials said. Israel’s military denied accounts by local residents that they were killed in an air strike.

Violence along the Israel-Gaza border has flared since US President Donald Trump’s recognition last week of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and the IDF’s demolition on Sunday of a cross-border tunnel it said was dug by Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group that controls the small coastal enclave.

On Monday, Israel’s Iron Dome aerial defense system intercepted a rocket fired by terrorists in Gaza. Shortly afterward, Israel responded with tank fire and air strikes targeting positions of Hamas.

After the explosion on Tuesday that killed the two Islamic Jihad members, an Israeli military statement said: “Contrary to Palestinian reports … the IDF did not attack in the northern Gaza Strip.”