Three Palestinians killed in infiltration attempt

“A short time ago, an IDF force identified a number of armed suspects near the Gaza perimeter fence,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in a statement, adding that “an IDF attack helicopter and tank shot at them.”

The three armed men were reported to be members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s military wing, Saraya al-Quds. They were engaged and killed by IDF troops after they attempted to infiltrate across the border fence.

They were identified by Palestinian media as 21 year-old Mohammed Al-Taramsi, 23 year-old Mohammad Abu Namous and 22 year-old Mahmoud Al-Walaydeh. Their bodies were recovered by medical crews and moved to the Indonesian hospital.

The three were wrapped in flags belonging to Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Fatah and Hamas’ Izzedin al-Qassem brigades during their burial.

While no group claimed responsibility for the infiltration attempt, PIJ mourned the three men and warned that Israel is fully responsible for “it’s heinous crimes against the Palestinian people” and that the group reserves “the right of our people to resist and confront all forms of Zionist agression.”

The group stressed that “the crime of targeting a group of angry youths” comes against a backdrop of “systematic terrorism, escalation aggression, ongoing siege, daily incursions in the al-Aqsa Mosque, agression against prisoners and settlement expansion. It is an aggression that comes in the context of the declared war on our people.”

Tensions have risen in the South following several violent infiltrations along the border fence. In less than two weeks, six armed Palestinians were able to infiltrate into Southern Israel before being engaged by IDF troops and killed.

Last week it was reported that the defense establishment has begun planning to build an additional wall along the border close to where Saturday’s infiltration occurred.

According to a report on Israel’s Channel 12 last week, the Defense Ministry is planning to build a six meter (20 feet) high defensive wall inside Israeli territory along a 9 km. stretch of Route 34 between the communities of Yad Mordechai and Sderot.

The additional wall, which is meant to provide nearby communities with additional protection from terrorist infiltration, comes in addition to another barrier, large sand berms and the planting of trees to protect citizens from threats like anti-tank fire emanating from the Strip following the death of an Israeli civilian by a Kornet anti-tank missile fired at his car in May.

Israel’s new upgraded barrier with the Strip is expected to be completed – both above and underground – by next summer, to remove the threat of cross-border attack tunnels and stop terrorists from Gaza intent on carrying out attacks from infiltrating into southern Israel.

The attempted infiltration came after three rockets were fired towards southern Israel, with one Qassem rocket striking the yard of a home in Sderot.

Two people sustained minor injuries Saturday evening while running to bomb shelters during the rocket sirens, a 30 year-old woman who fainted and a 76-year-old woman who required hospitalization.

While the rocket fire on Saturday night was the second time in a row with a rocket fired from the Hamas-run enclave on Friday night leading to Israeli retaliatory strikes, Israel did not respond to the rocket fire to hit Sderot.

Sderot mayor on Sunday told Israeli media that the government should give the green light for a full-blown military operation in the Hamas-run coastal enclave.

“We need to go on a wide-scale operation right now to eradicate Hamas, without waiting for other timings,” Davidi told Army Radio. “Only force can stop them.”

He told Channel 13 that there is no other choice but a ground operation in the Gaza Strip after the last week, saying “we have gone through an unpleasant weekend with red alerts for two days in a row. Sderot residents are on the one hand trying to keep to their normal routines, but on the other hand there is no choice in the current situation but to go on a ground operation in the Gaza Strip.”

“The most important thing is to prepare the military and at the right time deal Hamas the biggest blow,” Davidi told Radio Galey Israel. “The culture of this organization is one of bringing death to the region.”

Foreign Minister Israel Katz dismissed the possibility of a ground invasion, telling Army Radio that “what happened yesterday in Sderot will not be left without a response. We are maintaining a policy of not initiating a wide-scale operation but keeping the deterrence.”

Following the rocket fire the cities of Beersheba, Ashdod, Ofakim, Gan Yavne and Yavne opened their municipal bomb shelters ahead of expected reprisal rocket attacks.

Magen David Adom rescue services service also said it was going on high alert In southern Israel.