As Hamas escalates its attacks on Israel, one terrorist was killed and another injured while trying to destroy an underground wall.
By: World Israel News Staff
Palestinian terrorists blew themselves up Monday while trying to dynamite a hole in an underground wall separating Israel from the Gaza Strip, the IDF said.
A terror cell of five was involved in the attempt to create a hole in the underground wall, of whom one terrorist was blown to death and another was injured critically when a bomb went off that was supposed to carve an opening in the underground barrier.
Israel is constructing a subterranean barricade around the periphery of Gaza in an effort to prevent terrorists from launching underground offensives into Israel.
Stretching to all sides of Gaza, the barrier is also under the Mediterranean sea.
Palestinian sources claimed that the terrorist that was killed died from IDF fire, which the IDF denied.
The site of the incident was in northern Gaza at the defunct Karni Crossing, which has become a landmark for meetings by organizers of riots, particularly on Fridays.
The IDF did not say whether the barrier was damaged by the explosion.
Sabri Ahmed Abu Khader, 24, was said to be the terrorist who was blown up, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
Israeli ministers debate how to respond to attacks
Security cabinet ministers are split on how to deal with the attacks from Gaza
On Monday morning, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman warned Hamas and other terror groups in the Strip that Israel would not allow Gazans to continue launching incendiary devices into Israeli territory, which have caused hundreds of brush fires and burned thousands of acres of land in recent months.
“If anyone thinks it will be possible to continue with the daily kites and fires, they are wrong,” Liberman said during a tour of Israel Aerospace Industries, the country’s primary aerospace manufacturer.
Housing Minister Yoav Galant, a retired IDF general, told Israel Radio that since Israel has a clear military advantage of “a thousand to one,” it must act with restraint.
“We are trying to calm the situation with the minimal possible use of force,” Galant said.
“When an eight-year-old boy flies a kite strapped with a firebomb because someone told him to, it is problematic to send a drone to shoot him dead,” he said.
Responding to a number of incendiary and explosive kites and balloons that had been flown into Israel on Sunday, the Israeli Air Force conducted predawn raids on Hamas positions in Gaza.
Palestinians then launched three rockets toward southern Israel. One fell short of the border and the other two apparently struck open fields, causing neither injury nor damage.