Two Palestinian militants were injured early on Monday in an Israeli air strike on southern Gaza, medics said following days of unrest in the territory.

The Israeli army confirmed the strike, which was the fifth confirmed air raid on the enclave in six days.

Palestinian medics had on Sunday reported another air strike, which injured seven people, but the Israeli army denied the report.

"The Israeli air force carried out an attack at around 2:30 am (2330 GMT Sunday) just east of Khan Yunis which injured two Palestinian fighters, one of them critically," emergency services spokesman Adham Abu Selmiya told AFP.

It was not clear how badly the second man had been injured.

An Israeli military spokesman confirmed the raid, saying the air force had targeted Palestinians in southern Gaza "who were preparing to attack Israel."

Elsewhere, residents in northern Gaza said the air force had dumped leaflets across the area warning people to avoid coming within 300 metres (yards) of the border fence.

The raid comes after days of tit-for-tat violence, which began when militants in Gaza fired rockets into southern Israel late on Tuesday, prompting a retaliatory air raid in a pattern that has continued since then.

Army figures show that Gaza militants have fired 22 rockets and mortar rounds into southern Israel since July 1.

The uptick in violence comes after more than two months of relative calm that followed a flare-up in tensions in April, when an anti-tank missile fired from Gaza hit an Israeli school bus, killing a teenager.

Israel responded with a series of air strikes that killed at least 19 Palestinians, but on April 10 Gaza's Hamas rulers declared a return to the truce that ended Israel's devastating three-week assault on the territory over the New Year of 2009.

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