Two Palestinian Authority terrorists were seriously wounded in fierce fighting with IDF soldiers in the town of el-Burij in central Gaza. One IDF soldier was killed and two others were lightly wounded in the battle, which continued through the afternoon.

 

Staff Sgt. Arbel Reich, 21, was killed in the gunfight with the Hamas Izz al-Din el-Kassam terrorist cell in the wee hours of Thursday morning. Reich, a resident of the northern Israeli community of Yuvalim, paid the ultimate price fighting the same terrorist group which helped kidnap IDF Cpl. Gilad Shalit in a cross-border raid from Gaza more than a year ago.

 

Dozens of Gaza residents were arrested by IDF forces by midday Thursday, and were transferred to a pre-1967area for further questioning. At least 11 terrorists were killed and more than 100 arrested during other IDF counter-terrorism activities in the past week.

 

IDF ground forces renewed counter-terrorist operations in Gaza shortly after midnight after several days of Arab mortar attacks on communities in the western Negev.

 

The battle which killed Sgt. Reich began when a terrorist cell attack an undercover ground unit from the Givati Brigade. IAF fighter pilots shot and seriously wounded two of the terrorists during the 3:00 a.m. battle.

 

Hamas has claimed responsibility for the attack, although the terrorist cell was initially identified, based on the wounded men, as a unit from the Islamic Jihad terror organization.

 

IDF ground troops have been destroying Kassam rocket launchers, some with timers, near the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanounin in ground operations over the past week.