GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip ? Palestinian militants sneaked into Israel underneath a Gaza border crossing Sunday, killed two Israeli soldiers and captured another, raising the threat of an all-out conflict in the Gaza Strip just a year after Israel’s pullout.

Israel, which sent ground troops into Gaza after the assault, blamed the Hamas-led government and warned that militants and their leaders will be killed if the abducted soldier is harmed. Hamas appealed for restraint.

Three Palestinian attackers were killed in the battle with Israeli forces at the crossing point where the borders of Israel, Egypt and Gaza converge.

A spokesman for the Gaza militant group believed to be holding the soldier rejected calls from Palestinian leaders for his release.

The assault spiked tensions that are already high amid daily Palestinian rocket barrages from Gaza, bloody Israeli reprisals, and open hatred between Israel and the Palestinian government headed by the Islamic militant group Hamas.