One Gaza terrorist is dead and several others were wounded following an air strike near the Karni crossing Thursday morning, according to Gaza sources. The Karni Crossing houses the terminal through which a giant conveyor delivers tons of grain and animal feed to Gaza each week.
Israel Air Force pilots allegedly struck the terror cell, which was led by the 26-year-old operative who was killed in the strike. The terrorist, whose name has not yet been released, had been involved in a number of prior attacks on Israel in recent months and allegedly was planning a more amibitious operation aimed at the Karni Crossing.
In a separate ground operation, IDF soldiers also became engaged in a firefight with a second terrorist cell Thursday morning. According to IDF sources, the soldiers returned fire after terrorists began shooting at the troops while they were patrolling the security fence near Kibbutz Alumim.
The operatives were apparently intending to carry out attacks against Israeli communities. The military division of Gaza’s ruling Hamas terrorist organization, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, confirmed in a statement that one of its members had been killed in the exchange during a "special mission." The statement did not include further details.
Gaza residents have been warned repeatedly in flyers dropped into the area, as well as in recordings in Arabic phoned to private homes in the region, that IDF soldiers would shoot anyone entering the buffer zone around the security barrier.
Two days ago, Israel Air Force pilots destroyed several unidentified targets in retaliation for continuing rocket and mortar attacks launched against Israel from Gaza. The French news agency APF reported that an eyewitnesses saw five missiles strike the former Gaza airport, a target that was also hit last week by the IAF in response to an attempted terrorist attack by sea.
Six Palestinian Authority Arab fugitives were arrested in other counter-terrorism operations in Judea and Samaria overnight as well.