‘More than 10′ Gaza militants killed infiltrating Israel

JERUSALEM – More than 10 militants from
Gaza were shot dead on Monday after
infiltrating southern Israel, the army’s official
spokesman said.
“Hamas terrorists infiltrated Israel through two
tunnels from north Gaza. IDF intercepted and
killed more than 10 terrorists,” Lieutenant
Colonel Peter Lerner wrote on his official
Twitter feed.
The army said “two terrorist squads” had
managed to enter Israel by means of cross-
border tunnels, one of which came out just one
kilometre (half a mile) from the southern
Israeli town of Sderot.
Following an exchange of gunfire with troops,
the squad was targeted by an air strike, the
army said.
Military radio said the second squad tried to
approach Niram kibbutz close to Gaza’s
northeastern tip, where they engaged in a
fierce gun battle with soldiers in which they
also fired anti-tank weapons.
Several soldiers were wounded, the radio said,
without giving further details.
A similar attack on Saturday by militants
accessing Israel by tunnels from central Gaza
left one militant and two soldiers dead, the
army said. It said the attackers had been
disguised as Israeli soldiers.
Monday’s attack was claimed by Hamas
armed wing the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades,
which said it had carried out “an operation
behind enemy lines in response to the
massacre in Shejaiya.”
It was referring to a neighbourhood between
Gaza City and the Israeli border, where a
ferocious Israeli bombardment, which began
early on Sunday, has killed at least 72
Palestinians.
Late on Thursday, Israel sent ground troops
into Gaza on a mission to destroy a network
of sophisticated tunnels used by militants for
launching cross-border attacks.
“Since the beginning of the ground phase of
the operation, the IDF has exposed 14 tunnels
headed towards Israel, all intended to infiltrate
Israel and carry out terror attacks,” Lerner
said in a statement late on Sunday.
“It’s like the ‘Underground’, the ‘Metro’ or the
‘Subway’. These tunnels are all connected. I
would describe it as ‘Lower Gaza’,” he said.