Six Palestinians were injured Saturday during clashes between militants and Israeli forces in southeast Gaza Strip, security sources and hospital officials said.

Two of the wounded were fighters and four civilians, according to officials at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip.

In Alfaraheen area in the east of Khan Younis, the militants engaged Israeli troops patrolling the fence that separates Gaza and Israel. The Israeli army responded with eight artillery shelling and machine gunfire by helicopters, the security sources said.

The military wing of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) claimed reasonability for starting armed confrontation with the Israeli army. In a statement sent to the press, the DFLP said two of its fighters were wounded in Israeli bombing.

The four other injured were civilians who lived in Alfaraheen.

Islamic Hamas movement, which controls the coastal enclave, maintains a shaky ceasefire with Israel. However, the areas along Gaza's northern and eastern borders with Israel have always seen clashes and Israeli incursions.