JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s military this week fired on a group of Palestinians that it said was preparing to plant explosives on the Israel-Gaza border.
One Palestinian was killed in Tuesday night’s incident, the Israeli Defense Forces said in a statement.
The Popular Resistance Committees, which is loyal to the Islamist Hamas movement, identified the dead man as Hassan Abu Rook, 22, a member of the group who it said was in the area on a special mission, Haaretz reported.
The incident was the second one in the same location in three days. Two Palestinians were killed in an incident on Dec. 26.
"Palestinian civilians in the area near the security fence are used by terrorist organizations to cover their activities there," read a statement issued by the IDF following the incident. "These include planting explosive devices, planning terrorist attacks and attempting to kidnap IDF soldiers,"
