Two Israeli soldiers were killed and a third was wounded in a clash with terrorists who breached the Lebanon border fence early Thursday morning.
One terrorist was killed and another captured. The third managed to escape into Lebanon.
An Israel Defense Force spokesman identified the dead soldiers as Eliezer Shefer of Herzliya and Avshalom Bishari of Kfar Zeitim. They were to be buried later Thursday.
The incident occurred shortly after 4 a.m. local time, when a paratroop unit was alerted to investigate a break in the security fence that runs the length of the Israel-Lebanon border. The unit was ambushed by the terrorists firing missiles and grenades.
Chief of Staff Gen. Dan Shomron told reporters later that the terrorist infiltrators planned to attack a “certain settlement” to kill civilians and take hostages. He said the infiltration may have been linked to Arab unrest in the administered territories.
According to an IDF spokesman, one of the terrorists surrendered quickly when he came under fire, shouting “stop” in English and holding up his hands. Another terrorist was shot to death when he continued to throw grenades at the IDF unit.
The paratroop unit killed three terrorists near Kibbutz Manera in the Galilee panhandle last month, suffering no casualties.
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