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GAZA, March 4 (Reuters) - Israeli ground forces and Hamas militants clashed inside the Gaza Strip on Tuesday in the first raid of its kind since a five-day Israeli incursion that killed more than 120 Palestinians ended on Monday.

Palestinian witnesses and Hamas officials said a column of Israeli armoured vehicles crossed the border in central Gaza and came under mortar and machinegun fire.

Israeli helicopters circled overhead as the soldiers surrounded the home of a militant. The Hamas-allied Islamic Jihad movement said the man was a leader of its armed wing.

An Israeli army spokeswoman confirmed there was a military operation under way in Gaza but declined to give details.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas suspended U.S.-backed peace talks with Israel in response to the earlier major operation, which Israel said was aimed at stopping militants from firing cross-border rockets.

During a visit to the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State Condeleezza Rice urged Abbas to return to the negotiating table with Israel.

Israeli troops frequently carry out raids in Gaza within a few hundred metres from the border. (Reporting by Nidal al-Mughrabi, editing by Myra MacDonald)

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