JERUSALEM - Israel has agreed to an Egyptian request and re-opened its border crossings with the Gaza Strip despite continuing mortar fire by Palestinian militants.

Egypt's unusual request appeared to be an attempt to prod forward the shaky truce deal between Israel and Hamas. The deal was designed in part to ease Israel's crushing blockade of the coastal strip.

The decision by Defence Minister Ehud Barak to reopen the crossings Tuesday suggests Israel may be open to relaxing its response to the occasional attacks that have persisted since the truce took effect.

Hours after the crossings opened at noon, militants fired another shell into Israel, causing no casualties or damage and Israel kept the crossings open.

Earlier, two mortars exploded near the Sufa crossing, where Israel allows transfer of humanitarian supplies into Gaza. One fell just inside Gaza and the other in Israel.

In all, 15 rockets and mortars have been fired from Gaza since the truce began. Previously, Israel responded automatically by closing the crossings, which have been closed about half of the time since the truce took effect June 19.

Under the first phase of the ceasefire, Gaza militants were to halt their assaults on southern Israel, and Israel was to gradually allow more supplies to enter impoverished Gaza, home to 1.4 million Palestinians.

For months, the crossings have been cracked open only for humanitarian shipments, in an effort to pressure militants to stop barraging southern Israel with rockets and mortars.

So far the truce has not eased conditions in Gaza because of the frequent closures.

Should the truce take root, its final stage calls for stepped-up talks on opening a major Gaza border passage with Egypt and releasing an Israeli soldier Hamas has held for two years. Hamas officials were headed to Cairo on Tuesday to discuss opening the Gaza-Egypt passage.

In Cairo, senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar said his group will resume talks with Egyptian mediators on the truce with Israel and a possible prisoner swap.

He said talks will also address the fate of abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit, whom Hamas wants to trade for hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

Egypt mediated the truce because Israel has no contacts with Hamas, which does not recognize the Jewish state's right to exist.

In related news, an explosion went off early Tuesday at a Hamas military training camp in Gaza, killing two members of the group and wounding three, both health and Hamas officials said.

Hamas' military wing said in a statement that the two were killed while carrying out a "holy mission," suggesting explosives were mishandled and went off prematurely.

While trying to cement a truce with militants in Gaza, Israel is also cracking down on the movement's operations in the West Bank.

For a second straight day Tuesday, the Israeli military ordered the shutdown of facilities affiliated with an Islamic charity in the West Bank town of Nablus. The military accused the Islamic Charity Movement of being a front for Hamas.

There was no immediate comment from the charity.

Hamas wrested control of the Gaza Strip from forces allied with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a year ago, and Israel doesn't want it to also take over the West Bank.

In recent months, Israeli forces have gone after West Bank charities, moneychangers, news media and schools with suspected ties to militants.

Elsewhere in the West Bank, the Israeli military lifted a two-day curfew that confined residents of a Palestinian village to their homes and barred movement in and out of the community.

The army imposed the curfew on Naalin on Sunday after violent protests against Israel's West Bank separation barrier. The barrier, designed to keep Palestinian attackers out of Israel, dips into the West Bank at points and is designed to cut through village land.

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