Israeli forces shot dead a group of armed Palestinians along the Gaza Strip’s security fence late Saturday night, hours after three rockets were fired at southern Israel from the restive coastal enclave.
The exact number of Palestinians killed during the suspected infiltration was not immediately known. Gaza-based news outlets reported four or five people killed in the strike.
The Israeli military said an attack helicopter and a tank were used to kill the suspected terrorists as they approached the fence.
“A short while ago, IDF troops spotted armed suspects near the security fence around the northern Gaza Strip. An IDF attack helicopter and a tank fired at them,” the army said in a statement.
Israeli troops also fired flares throughout the area in order to assist in the efforts to locate the suspected terrorists.
An army spokesperson said there were no reports of Israeli casualties.
The Hamas-linked Palestinian Information Center said the men had been on the Gaza side of the fence when they were killed, and that some of the bodies had been confiscated by Israel, citing “local sources.” The reports could not be confirmed.
Hamas’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, said that Israel later conducted artillery strikes on its positions east of Beit Lahia in northern Gaza, near where the men had approached the fence to enter Israel.
Palestinian media reported that the men were members of the Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s military wing, Saraya al-Quds. This could not be immediately confirmed.
The suspected infiltration attempt came as violence between Israel and Gaza has ramped up considerably in the last three weeks.
On Saturday night, the cities of Beersheba, Ashdod, Ofakim, Gan Yavne and Yavne opened their municipal bomb shelters ahead of expected reprisal rocket attacks. The Magen David Adom ambulance service also said it was going on high alert.
Earlier on Saturday night, Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired three rockets at southern Israel, two of which were intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system, the military said.
Fragments from one of the Gaza rockets struck the yard of a home in the town of Sderot, causing damage.
There were no physical injuries caused by the shrapnel in Sderot. One woman received medical treatment after she suffered an acute anxiety attack because of the impact, medics said.
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