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An injured Palestinian man receives treatment at a hospital in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip following an Israeli air strike on the enclave. Image Credit: AFP

Gaza: Israeli fire killed two Palestinian teenagers in Gaza, local health officials said on Sunday, after Israel launched 18 strikes there.

The flare-up, which started on Saturday and had died down by Sunday morning, was one of the biggest in the Gaza Strip since a 2014 war between Israel and Palestinian militants.

On Saturday a bomb blast on the Israel-Gaza border wounded four Israeli troops.

Gaza medics said that on Sunday they retrieved the bodies of two 17-year-old Palestinians killed by the Israeli tank fire.

No militant group in Gaza claimed responsibility for Saturday’s explosion.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum blamed the violence on Israel.

“Hamas holds the Israeli occupation fully responsible for the consequences of its continued escalation against our people,” said Barhoum in a statement.

Tensions have risen along the Gaza border since US President Donald Trump’s unilateral recognition in December of Occupied Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.