Two Israeli soldiers were wounded, one moderately and one lightly, in another Kassam missile attack on the western Negev Tuesday morning, barely 12 hours after mortar shells and rockets were fired Gaza and exploded in an open field of a kibbutz in the same area.
IDF helicopters evacuated the victims to nearby Soroka Medical Center in Be’er Sheva. Israeli media generally ignore the attacks when no one is wounded, but this time reported on the latest explosions following the news that soldiers were wounded.
The government and military adopted a policy in the past year to retaliate after every terrorist attack from Hamas-controlled Gaza, and a response is likely in the next 24 hours.
More than 115 rockets and mortars have been fired at Israelis since the beginning of 2010, and more than 400 rockets were fired from Gaza since the end of Operation Cast Lead early last year.
Hamas has alternately increased and reduced the number of Kassam rocket attacks. The latest escalation may be timed to interfere with the apparent likelihood that the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority will agree to direct talks with Israel over a proposed new Arab country within Israel’s borders.
The PA is headed by the Fatah faction, which lost control of Gaza in a bloody militia war with Hamas three years ago.
Monday night, one Islamic Jihad terrorist was killed in an exchange of gunfire with the IDF after soldiers discovered a cell trying to plant bombs along the Gaza security fence, where IDF jeeps conduct regular patrols. One soldier was lightly