Mixed accounts of tunnel attack in Gaza

The Israeli army says it foiled an infiltration of Hamas fighters into southern Israel early Thursday while the group denies the army's version saying the fighters had already completed a mission when they came under Israeli fire.

The incident occurred several hours before a five-hour ceasefire went into effect. 

According to the Israeli army account, 13 fighters emerged from a tunnel under the southern Gaza border around 4:30am (0230 GMT), and were headed towards Sufa kibbutz, a small community just over a kilometre (mile) away, when they were spotted.

Israeli forces killed at least one of the militants in an air raid, said army spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Peter Lerner, while the remaining fighters ran back towards the tunnel. An apparent video of the air raid, that has been posted by Israeli forces on YouTube, can be viewed below.

"If the terror attack had been actualised, it would have been very significant," an IDF spokesperson told Haaretz. "Think, 13 terrorists inside of a kibbutz. We would have woken up this morning to a killing spree, including the possibility of abductions. That clearly would have been the result.

Hamas armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, which said it was behind the operation in a statement early Thursday, however holds that none of its members were killed in an air strike.

Instead the group said its fighters completed a mission at 4:00 am (0100 GMT) before retreating back to the tunnel, but did not elaborate on the aim of the mission.