The Israel-Gaza Strip border. Photo: Mary Madigan via Wikimedia Commons.

Israeli tank fire killed two Hamas fighters in Gaza on Tuesday in a strike the Israeli military said was launched against a position from which its troops had been shot at.

Health officials in Gaza confirmed the deaths near Beit Lahiya in northern Gaza, shortly before noon.

A statement by the Israeli military said: “A short while ago, terrorists fired shots towards IDF (Israel Defense Forces) soldiers near the northern Gaza Strip from a Hamas post. In response, an IDF tank targeted the post from which the shots were fired.”

The military released footage that it said was of the incident. One of the grainy black and white video clips shows two men in a watchtower, one appears to open fire as puffs of smoke burst in front of him. The video then cuts to separate footage of a shell hitting the post and an explosion. Reuters was immediately unable to verify the footage.

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In Gaza, Hamas’s military wing, the Qassam Brigades, issued a statement saying that it “mourns the two Mujahedeen” and that they had been “martyred in a Zionist bombardment.”

UN and Egyptian-led efforts are under way to mediate a long-term truce between Israel and Hamas that would end a four-month upsurge of violence along the Israel-Gaza border.