JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli troops came under mortar fire from Gaza while performing engineering work near the border fence.
The Israel Defense Forces responded to the Wednesday morning attack by shelling Hamas-run military posts in the Gaza Strip, the IDF said.
No Israeli soldiers were injured in the morning mortar attack; a second mortar was reported fired at troops Wednesday afternoon. The Hamas military post fired on by Israel was damaged but there were no Palestinian casualties, Ynet reported, citing Palestinian sources.
By Wednesday afternoon, a total of four mortar attacks were aimed at Israeli troops on the Gaza border. A joint statement released Wednesday afternoon by Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization claimed responsibility for the attacks.
The shelling on the border came after Israeli troops working near the border with northern Gaza Tuesday afternoon came under gunfire. An Israeli army engineering vehicle was hit in the fire from northern Gaza and damaged by the bullets and no troops were injured, the IDF said.
Tuesday’s incident came several hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited troops in the southern border area of Gaza, and remarked on the relative quiet of the border area in the two years since Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza.
