IDF, terrorists clash in Gaza

Southern front heating up: Fire exchanges raged Tuesday morning between Israel Defense Forces soldiers and gunmen near the Kissufim crossing in the central Gaza Strip.

The troops were operating in the area at a distance of several hundred meters from the border fence, in a bid to uncover terror infrastructure. During the night reserve forces entered the area accompanied by army trackers, engineering corps units and tanks to provide cover.

The operation in the region began at night in the framework of large-scale and ongoing activity to expose tunnels and terrorist infrastructure in Gaza. Since Hamas' ascendance to power, troops have conducted dozens of operations in the region in a bid to thwart terror attacks in Israel.

Gaza operations ongoing

Parallel to the operations in Kissufim, since the kidnapping of Cpl. Gilad Shalit the IDF have operating continuously in the Gaza Strip on the brigade and regiment levels. Despite the severe Palestinian resistance the troops are meeting there, which includes anti-tank missile fire, the army has recorded no exceptional incidents recently. The last incident was in the al-Atatara area of northern Gaza, when a Golani Brigade soldier was killed in a raid.

In the past three months of IDF operations, over 200 Palestinian terrorists were killed, including cells that tried to perpetrate missile attacks against soldiers and plant explosives or breach the security fence.

Southern Command officials described terrorists’ motivation to attack forces operating in the Strip as “high,” as was their motivation to carry out attacks against Israeli civilians. Evidence of this could be seen, for example, in the exposure two weeks ago of a massive tunnel under a north Gaza neighborhood, which was apparently intended for use in an attack on the Karni goods crossing.

The operations in Gaza were effected by the fighting in the north against Hizbullah, especially with the transfer of large forces from the Strip to the northern border. With that, the Gaza Division under the command of Brigadier General Moshe (Chico) Tamir continued to operate and arrest terror operatives in the Palestinian territory.

Southern Command officials clarified that the IDF would continue to operate in Gaza and would even boost activities in an effort to reduce Qassam rocket attacks towards Sderot and other Israeli border communities to a minimum. In recent weeks a significant drop in rocket attacks was seen. Likewise, operations to return Shalit would also continue, officials noted.

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