RAFAH, Gaza Strip -- Two Palestinians, one a three-year-old boy, were killed and more than 30 wounded in the Gaza Strip on Sunday when Israeli troops raided a refugee camp and demolished houses.

Israeli soldiers also shot dead two gunmen trying to penetrate an Israeli town from the nearby frontier with Egypt.

The southern Gaza Strip has been a flashpoint during the Palestinian Intifada or uprising for independence and the army often raids Rafah Camp in operations.

Troops used tanks and bulldozers in their overnight raid into the teeming refugee camp, searching houses for tunnels, and medics said a 26-year-old Rafah man, Ibrahim Alghuti, was killed by Israeli machine-gun fire and five people were wounded.

Soldiers found one tunnel access point behind a baby's crib and another in a kitchen. They removed the occupants of both houses and then demolished them, security sources said.

The force of the blast brought down the walls of nearby homes, killing a three-year-old boy in one and wounding at least 25 people in others, witnesses said.

Shortly afterwards, Israeli troops shot dead two gunmen trying to penetrate the Israeli town Yevul after apparently crossing the border from Egypt, after a gunfight in which two Israeli soldiers were wounded, military sources said.

At least 1,612 Palestinians have been killed in the uprising that flared after peace talks stalled.

Violence has increased since an Israeli air raid in the Gaza Strip last week that killed 17 Palestinians and wounded about 80.

The activist group Hamas said it would take revenge, and on Thursday a Palestinian martyrdom-seeker, prevented from blowing up a commuter bus near Tel Aviv.