Israeli troops killed a Palestinian who tried to cross the border illegally from the Gaza Strip.
Soldiers shot the infiltrator after he clambered over the Gaza border fence Thursday and ignored orders to halt. Though he was suspected of being en route to an attack, no weapons were found, raising the possibility that he was looking for work.
It was the first killing by Israel of a Gazan since an Egyptian-brokered truce began in the coastal territory on June 19.
Gaza’s Hamas rulers denounced the death as a “serious challenge” to the cease-fire but stopped short of further threats.
Separately, Hamas said that two Palestinians died Thursday when a smuggling tunnel they were digging across Gaza’s southern frontier with Egypt collapsed. Such tunnels have been used by Hamas to bring in thousands of small arms during the truce, Israeli officials believe.
Israeli commandos also killed a Hamas terrorist in the West Bank.
An undercover Israeli unit tried to arrest a Hamas fugitive in Kafr Dan, a village near Jenin, late Wednesday, but shot him when he fled. He later died of his wounds.
The Hamas man had been planning terrorist attacks in Israel, security sources said.
