Israeli troops shot and killed two Palestinians armed with rifles and rocket propelled grenades as they approached a checkpoint on the boundary between Israel and the Gaza Strip on Wednesday.
The bloodshed came as Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon fought rivals in his cabinet in a battle to push through his Gaza pullout plan.
Palestinian security sources said they had been informed by the Israeli army that two Palestinians were killed near the Karni checkpoint.
The Palestinian group Hamas said the men, from the Jabalya refugee camp, were on their way to carry out an attack on an Israeli convoy.
The United Nations said two Palestinian boys were wounded by the Israeli army on Tuesday, one seriously, after a tank fired its machine-gun at a UN elementary school in Rafah's Tel Sultan area.