At least two Palestinian militants were killed and two others were wounded Tuesday when Israeli troops shot at them as they tried to plant explosives near the border, according to an Israeli military spokesman in Tel Aviv and Palestinians in Gaza.

Tanks rolled in to chase down the Palestinian assailants. Residents said the Israelis also used machine guns, artillery and missiles.

An official at Al Aksa Hospital in the town of Deir al-Balah said Tuesday that the two slain militants, Marwan al-Jarba, 22, and Wael Abu Jalala, 18, were dead on arrival, and that the two others had moderate to serious wounds.

The Israeli military said its troops found two bodies on the ground and believed a total of four had been killed and two wounded. It added that its forces found explosive devices, assault rifles, hand grenades and additional weaponry on the bodies.

Islamic Jihad, a smaller and more radical competitor of the Hamas party governing Gaza, said in a statement that it had sent fighters to strike at Israeli forces along Gaza’s eastern boundary but that they were spotted and attacked.