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Hamas militants (photo: flash90)
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| By Israel Insider staff August 26, 2007 |
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Israeli Defense Forces troops on Saturday shot and killed two terrorists who infiltrated Israel from the Gaza Strip, wearing IDF uniforms and carrying weapons and explosives, local papers reported. The militants were planning to carry out an attack on a local Jewish community.
IDF sources said that they expect terrorist groups to increase their efforts to launch attacks in Israel in the near future, according to Haaretz.
"It's obvious to us that this is the reality, and the trend is apparently that it's going to continue. In the end, our operational response is currently good," the commander of the Northern Gaza Brigade, Colonel Moni Katz, said.
A spokesman for Hamas' Popular Resistance Committees in Gaza confirmed that one of its militants, Mohammed Sakr, and another from the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Khader Awkal, were killed in a "martyrdom operation against the Zionist entity" targeting the Israeli community of Nativ Ha'asara, near the Gaza border.
"The occupying forces do not distinguish between civilians and soldiers, and neither do the Popular Resistance Committees," the spokesman said, according to the Jerusalem Post.
According to Nativ Ha'asara resident Micha Biton, contrary to what the defense establishment might say, local residents do not believe that the security barrier adequately reinforces their safety, Biton told Army Radio on Sunday.
"All of us here have warned and spoken about this, that it's just a matter of time, and something has to be done. The defense establishment, however, like a mantra that repeats itself, has told us not to worry, 'it's all under control.' All kinds of people come to us saying that we're not protected - 'You think this wall protects you, but it doesn't,'" Biton said.
Meanwhile, IDF forces shot and killed a high-ranking militant in the West Bank city of Jenin along with two other operatives.
In a separate incident, soldiers killed two Palestinian gunmen who shot at them near the border fence with Gaza.
On Friday, Border Police officers killed an 11-year-old Arab Israeli boy from the Negev community of Rahat, during a raid in the West Bank. According to Palestinian witnesses, he was shot in a gunfight between IDF troops who approached the family's home to arrest the boy's older half-brother, a wanted Islamic Jihad militant.
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