IDF soldiers on Sunday shot dead two Palestinian terrorists who were attempting to plant an explosive device along the security fence separating Israel from the Gaza Strip.
The soldiers spotted the gunmen near the fence north of the Kerem Shalom crossing and opened fire. They proceeded to cross the border into Gaza, where they found weapons, the explosive device and military vests on the terrorists' bodies.
Army officials said Palestinian terrorists were continuously attempting to plant bombs along the fence and then detonate them by remote control as IDF vehicles approached.
"Although we have so far been able to thwart these attempts, terror organizations define an attack on an IDF vehicle as a 'quality attack', and therefore continue in their attempts to plant explosives along the fence," an IDF official said.
According to IDF sources, terror groups in Gaza are still looking to kidnap more soldiers. "We have witnessed incidents whereby the terrorists were equipped with additional weapons, indicating their intent to carry out an attack on an IDF vehicle and kidnap a soldier" the army official said.
Since the beginning of 2007, IDF forces have thwarted dozens of attempts to plant bombs along the security fence and have killed at least 50 terrorists in the process.
Over the weekend a bomb exploded near the border fence in central Gaza as an IDF patrol passed by. The vehicle was slightly damaged, but no injuries were reported.
Meanwhile.the IDF and Shin-Bet continued their efforts Sunday to arrest Palestinians suspected of involvement in the shooting attack of Cpl. Ahikam Amihai (20) and Sgt. David Ruben (21), two off-duty IDF soldiers shot while hiking in the Telem Creek area.
Several suspects have been arrested in connection with this incident so far, and have been questioned by security forces. “We will arrest the entire terror cell responsible for this attack, we will get our revenge,” IDF sources told Ynet Sunday.
Palestinian sources have stated that the weapons seized from the soldiers during the attack were retuned to the IDF.
IDF officials will investigate the events leading up to Friday’s attack on Sunday, as well as assessing many settlers’ expressed intentions to return for hiking trips in the Telem Creek region near Hebron.
Israeli citizens were once again urged by the IDF not to hike in this area without prior notification to military officials. This in light of intelligence indicating the terror groups are planning further attacks in the region.
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