Arab terrorists from Gaza fired at an IDF jeep that was carrying out a routine patrol along the Gaza border Thursday morning. The jeep’s windshield was damaged but no one was hurt.
The bullets were apparently fired with a sniper’s rifle; the incident took place near Kibbutz Be’eri. The IDF fired back at least one tank shell at the area near Al Burej.
Responding to the incident, MK Danny Danon (Likud) said “the trickling fire from Gaza returns and we must respond with force. We must not be blinded by the seemingly quiet period which provides Hamas and Islamic Jihad time to renovate their terror infrastructure.”
“The IDF must attack the governmental buildings in Gaza now and strike the Hamas government,” said Danon, calling for decisive action.
Since early November, no less than 12 attempts to infiltrate the border into the Eshkol region were thwarted. Some of the infiltrators were armed, and the others were apparently only seeking employment.
On Sunday afternoon, two Palestinian Arabs crossed the border fence from Gaza into Israeli illegally, and were shot by soldiers. One of them died of his wounds.
The IDF clarified Sunday afternoon that the soldiers on duty at the border had initially merely fired warning shots into the air as is IDF protocol when warning off infiltrators.
“Once they didn’t comply, they fired towards their lower extremities. There was one hit,” a spokeswoman said. This was the first death of an infiltrator along the border since Operation Protective Edge.
Despite ongoing tensions on the border, Israel has made several concessions to Gaza; just this Tuesday a massive shipment of construction materials was let into Gaza from Israel, despite clear evidence that Hamas is rebuilding terror tunnels into Israel.
Israel also decided on Wednesday to give permits to Arab workers from Gaza to enter Israel, a practice that has not been done for a long time given the danger inherent in it – a danger illustrated in several recent high-scale terror attacks conducted by Arab workers.