Armed Palestinian infiltrating from Gaza Strip shot by IDF troops

The incident on Monday morning came several days after two incidents of rocket fire towards southern Israeli communities along the tense border.

By ANNA AHRONHEIM
A Swastika flag flies alongside a Palestinian flag near the border fence in Gaza (photo credit: IDF)
A Swastika flag flies alongside a Palestinian flag near the border fence in Gaza
(photo credit: IDF)
A Palestinian man was shot and arrested after he infiltrated from the Gaza Strip and threatened IDF soldiers with a knife, the Israeli military said on Monday.
The Israeli military said that the man was spotted crossing the border fence from the southern Gaza Strip into Israeli territory and a unit dispatched to intercept him saw him holding a knife in a threatening manner.
They responded by firing at the man’s legs, wounding him. He was treated by medics at the scene before being arrested by the troops for an initial investigation. He was then taken to a nearby hospital for further medical treatment.
Following the incident Immigration and Absorption Minister Yoav Gallant (Likud) took to Twitter to say that the safety and security of the residents of the Gaza region are of top priority.
“Israel’s security is above all. The firing of rockets, even one, is a terrorist act and is challenging our presence in this country – we will not agree to that. We will not accept a situation in which the children of Israel are being shot and we just stand by – the safety and security of the children of Israel and the Gaza region are our top priorities, because they are our future.”
In an earlier interview, the former head of the Southern Command said that there was no room for emotions when dealing with the South.
“My job is not to calm the children in the South, but to take care of Israel’s security, unfortunately, and that should be said for the children as well,” he said. “We need to act with common sense and from our heads and not stomachs. There are enemies who disagree with our existence and it will not end in a day or in a year or in another two.”
Labor-Gesher slammed Gallant in a statement saying that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his cabinet “have totally lost it.”
“They forgot the government’s job,” the party stated. “A minister that dodges his responsibility and that of the government is not worthy of the public’s trust. We see people before all else. The children of the Gaza border area count to us, while Netanyahu is counting dollars in suitcases to Hamas. That will stop very soon.”
The incident on Monday morning came several days after two incidents of rocket fire towards southern Israeli communities along the tense border.
On Thursday, Israeli jets struck Hamas positions in the southern Gaza Strip following earlier rocket fire towards the kibbutz of Kfar Aza which struck an open field. Earlier that morning, a rocket was fired toward Sderot around 2:30 a.m. The rocket was intercepted by the Iron Dome system.
The military said that Israeli jets struck a “underground infrastructure and a naval target” belonging to Hamas in the southern Gaza Strip as well as “a terrorist military compound in the northern Gaza Strip” in response.
The Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Kamil Abu Rokon announced that in response to the rocket fire, the fishing zone would be reduced from 15 nautical miles to 10 nautical miles until further notice.
The Israeli military holds Hamas, which has ruled over Gaza since 2007, responsible for all violence.
There have also been several incidents of Palestinians attempting to cross the border fence into Israel over the past week, a phenomenon which was rare over the last few months.
Late in the afternoon on Thursday the IDF said it had arrested three armed Palestinians who attempted to infiltrate into southern Israel from the northern Gaza Strip.
The previous day an Israeli aircraft fired and struck an armed Palestinian carrying what seemed like an assault rifle. He was spotted by IDF reconnaissance and observation posts approaching the border fence.
The rocket fire and infiltration attempts have broken two weeks of relative quiet in southern Israel when IAF jets struck Hamas targets in response to three rockets fired from the Strip. All three were intercepted by the Iron Dome.