The Israel Defense Forces targeted a Hamas military post in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday after a number of Gazans breached the border fence.
By: JNS.org
According to the IDF, a number “of suspects infiltrated Israel from the southern Gaza Strip, hurled firebombs and an explosive device in the border fence area, and then returned into the Gaza Strip.”
The breach comes amid another round of violent riots along the Israeli-Gaza border that have occurred almost weekly for the past several months.
Some 8,000 violent rioters gathered in five locations on Friday to attack the border.
The latest clashes come amid reports of a long-term ceasefire between Hamas and Israel that has been negotiated through Egypt.
The deal would purportedly include the improvement of living conditions inside Gaza, in addition to a sea port and an airport in Egypt.
Israel’s security cabinet is set to convene on Sunday to discuss the arrangement in the Gaza Strip.
Twenty-nine fires erupted in Israeli communities near the Gaza Strip border in a single day this week, as Palestinian arson terrorism continued to wreak havoc near the volatile frontier.
In addition to the threat of infiltration from Gaza by Hamas operatives, Israelis living in the south also face daily arson attacks via incendiary kites and balloons sent over the border.
Several ministers have urged the IDF to target arson terrorism cells directly, as it does terrorist firing rockets at Israel, but military officials have been wary of the move, saying that targeting incendiary kite and balloon cells, which mostly comprise teens, would lead to a rapid security escalation.
The terrorist arson campaign, launched in late April, has so far decimated nearly 10,000 acres of forest and farmlands on the Israeli side of the border. Incendiary kites and balloons have caused millions of dollars in damage to the area over the past three months and environmental experts say it will take at least 15 years to rehabilitate the vegetation and wildlife that have been destroyed.