Troops arrest some 30 Palestinians during operation.
By YAAKOV KATZN.Gaza tank 298 88(photo credit: AP)
At least five Palestinians were killed on Friday in clashes with IDF troops in the southern Gaza Strip. One soldier, from the Givati Brigade, was seriously wounded during the fighting.
The troops moved into southern Gaza together with armored forces and Engineering Corps vehicles in search of terrorists. On Thursday, soldiers discovered a grenade launcher and an anti-tank missile in a schoolyard in the Gaza City neighborhood of Sajaya.
During the operation, which was launched late Thursday night, troops arrested some 30 Palestinians near Khan Yunis and in the central Gaza Strip near the Kissufim crossing.
The soldier was hurt when a military bulldozer was struck by an anti-tank missile, which Hamas's armed wing, Izzadin Kassam, claimed responsibility for firing. The soldier was evacuated by helicopter to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.
On Saturday, two Palestinians were wounded in an IAF air strike after they were spotted firing mortars into the Nahal Oz fuel depot.
Earlier in the morning, IAF aircraft fired missiles at three armed Hamas terrorists riding on motorcycles in southern Gaza. They were all killed. Two Islamic Jihad terrorists were shot dead by troops after they were spotted approaching the security fence along Israel's border.
Also Friday, several greenhouses were damaged and a field of wheat was set afire as two Kassam rockets fired by terrorists in Gaza landed in the Sha'ar Hanegev region. No one was wounded. On Saturday, another two Kassams struck open fields in the western Negev.
Friday's violence came a day after an Islamic Jihad suicide bomb truck, laden with four tons of explosives, was driven into the Erez Crossing. The bombing caused extensive damage.
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