Five heavily armed terrorist infiltrators on “a killing mission” were gunned down early Tuesday morning by an Israel Defense Force patrol in the western Negev, near the Egyptian border.
An IDF spokesman said the gang apparently infiltrated from Sinai. There were no Israeli casualties.
Maj. Gen. Matan Vilnai, commander of the southern region, said the infiltration was probably linked to the second anniversary of the Palestinian uprising, which falls on Saturday.
He said the intruders carried no documents and therefore “we cannot know to what group they belonged.”
Lethal equipment found on the bodies included five Kalachnikov assault rifles, a pistol, ammunition clips and 51 hand grenades.
Vilnai said the large amount of weapons “shows they simply meant to kill — not to argue too much, not to carry out a hostage-taking operation, but a killing operation.”
The last reported infiltration from Egypt occurred March 15, when two Palestinian teenagers were captured near the town of Rafah, on the border between the Gaza Strip and Sinai.
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