The armed wing of Gaza-ruling Hamas movement said on Tuesday it has seized an Israeli drone that crashed earlier in the day near Gaza-Israel border fence.

"The Israeli drone which fell inside Gaza is in the hands of our militants," an official from the Izz al-Deen al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

According to the official, the Israeli drone fell 500 meters away from the fence near the southern Gaza Strip city of Rafah.

Earlier, the Israeli army said that a Skylark drone fell in the southern Gaza Strip due to technical malfunction, adding an investigation was underway.

Israel uses multiple types of drones in reconnaissance missions to gather intelligence and missile strikes in Gaza.

Last November, an Israel army drone crashed in northern Gaza Strip and was seized by Hams militants.

Tuesday's incident came a few hours before an Israeli army drone killed three Islamic Jihad militants near Rafah City.

The Islamic Jihad movement said the militants were killed during clashes with Israeli soldiers that moved into Rafah City.

However, the Israeli army said the strike targeted militants who fired mortars at Israeli forces near border fence.

Military escalations have been witnessed recently between Gaza militants and Israel, raising doubts of a possible collapse of a cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel brokered by Egypt in 2012.

The truce agreement ended a week of tit-for-tat violence that killed 184 Palestinians and six Israelis.