An Israeli soldier was shot dead today as he drove in a military convoy towards an army post in the Gaza Strip where troops were voting in Israel's prime ministerial election.
Elsewhere in the Gaza Strip, soldiers shot and wounded a 13-year-old Palestinian boy during stone-throwing clashes near the Karni crossing with Israel.
An Israeli army spokesman said the soldier was hit by a single bullet fired at an armoured vehicle near the Palestinian refugee camp of Rafah on Gaza's border with Egypt.
After the soldier was shot, troops fired machineguns and rocket-propelled grenades at Palestinian gunmen during fierce fighting in Rafah, witnesses said.
Prime Minister Ehud Barak ordered the closure of Gaza International Airport in the wake of the violence.
The unrest at Karni, in which the Palestinian boy was wounded, erupted after the funeral of an Islamic Jihad bomber killed while trying to infiltrate into Israel on Saturday.
Shots were also heard in the West Bank town of Hebron and several Jewish settlements in the region came under fire.
Reuters