IDF: Men who were shot near Gaza had damaged fence

Army does not have evidence to suggest that men, who entered forbidden security zone, were armed.

By YAAKOV LAPPIN
IDF vehicle along Gaza border fence 370 (photo credit: REUTERS)
IDF vehicle along Gaza border fence 370
(photo credit: REUTERS)
Two Palestinian men whom the IDF shot at the security fence separating northern Gaza from Israel on Monday night were sabotaging the barrier and had made a hole in it, a senior security source said Tuesday. The suspects entered a forbidden security zone on the border, prompting the IDF to send infantry and Armored Corps forces to the site.
Their ultimate intention was unclear, and the IDF hasn’t definitively concluded that a terror attack had been thwarted. The army believes one of the suspects was shot dead, based on reports from medical sources in Gaza, but they did not retrieve a body and cannot confirm the information.
Additionally, the IDF does not have evidence to suggest that the men were armed.
Since Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012 and the cease-fire with Hamas that ended the conflict, the southern border with Gaza has been largely characterized by quiet, with sporadic exceptions.
Last week, IDF soldiers operating around Kibbutz Kissufim, near the border with southern Gaza, identified a mortar shell fired at them by Palestinians.
There were no injuries.
Earlier in September, Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired a rocket at the South, triggering an air-raid siren shortly after 2 a.m. at the Hof Ashkelon Regional Council. The rocket hit an open area near the security fence, failing to cause injuries.