JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli troops killed two Palestinians who infiltrated into Israel from Gaza.
An Israeli soldier was wounded following last Friday’s incident, according to the Israeli military.
The Palestinian infiltrators, who successfully crossed the border near Kibbutz Nirim in the northwest Negev, were carrying rifles and a great deal of ammunition, and apparently intended to initiate a terror attack in Israel, according to the Israel Defense Forces. An Israeli soldier who secured the area where the infiltration took place was wounded later by Palestinian gunmen firing from inside Gaza.
Islamic Jihad claimed that the gunmen were working under its auspices, CNN reported.
The infiltration occurred just hours after Israel’s Air Force bombed three Gaza smuggling tunnels in response to a Kassam rocket fired last week from Gaza into southern Israel.
One of the tunnels, located just about a mile from Gaza’s border with Israel, apparently was to be used by Palestinian terrorists to infiltrate Israel and mount attacks against Israeli citizens or soldiers, the IDF said in a statement.
