IDF arrests 2 armed Arabs on Gaza border

The two suspects were armed with several knives.

By TPS

IDF troops arrested on Monday night two Arabs who had crossed the border from the Gaza Strip into Israel.

The two were found to be armed with several knives.

No one was wounded in the incident.

Infiltration attempts on the border with the Strip happen several times a week, usually by Gazan Arabs seeking work in Israel. However, Israeli forces treat each such incident as a potential terrorist attack.

The incident on Monday followed a Friday night shootout on the Egyptian border during which an IDF soldier was lightly injured while thwarting a drug smuggling operation.

IDF troops operating to thwart the operation on the Egyptian border found themselves in the vicinity of a violent exchange of fire between the smugglers and the Egyptian army.

An IDF vehicle in the area was hit in the shooting. An Israeli soldier who was in the vehicle was lightly injured in the hand by shrapnel and was evacuated for medical treatment at a hospital.

Israeli forces periodically clash with smugglers on the border with Egypt, a major smuggling route for drugs, weapons and women into Israel.

Israel in recent years has built a fence along the Egyptian border to block the flow of work migrants coming to the country from Africa through Egypt.

The tall fence has also been helpful in slowing down the prolific smuggling trade from Egypt into Israel, mostly the work of local Bedouin tribes.