A barrage of four Qassam rockets and five mortar shells fired by Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip slammed into the western Negev on Friday. No injuries were reported, but several people were treated for shock and cars in the area sustained damage.

Another Qassam rocket struck an open area in the Eshkol region in the western Negev. No injuries or damage were reported.

Earlier Friday, an Israel Defense Forces soldier was wounded and a Palestinian gunman was killed in clashes near the Gaza Strip border fence.

An IDF spokeswoman said troops operating close to the border east of Gaza City spotted an armed man and shot him. she said an Israeli soldier was lightly to moderately wounded in the exchange.

In an air strike earlier Friday, a missile destroyed an outpost belonging to Hamas militants, critically wounding one gunman. A number of bystanders were also hurt, Hamas said.

A second air strike was aimed at a building suspected of being a munitions workshop in Gaza City. The IDF spokeswoman said the missile missed its intended target.

The attacks came in response to a cross-border mortar strike on Kibbutz Nir Oz near the Gaza frontier on Thursday, which killed 51-year-old Amnon Rosenberg, a factory worker from nearby Kibbutz Nirim.

A young Palestinian girl was killed in a subsequent IAF strike on Gaza.

Rosenberg was laid to rest in Kibbutz Nir Oz on Friday.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Thursday that a broad military operation in the Gaza Strip was closer than ever and likely to occur before an Egyptian-mediated truce takes hold.