One of a cluster of five mortar shells fell 20 meters from IDF O.C. Southern Command Gen. Yoav Galant as he toured east of Gaza on Sunday morning. No one was hurt.
Galant was touring the Eshkol Regional Council area - one of the areas bordering Gaza that have been targeted by many mortar shells and rockets over the past weeks and months - with Council Head Chaim Yellin. The two had reached Kibbutz Ein HaShlosha when the shells hit. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
Ein HaShlosha, nearly adjacent to the border with south-central Gaza, has frequently been hit by shells, and PA snipers have shot at Kibbutz workers in the fields; one was killed, one was wounded. Early last month, St.-Sgt. Liran Banai was killed when a PA terrorist-planted bomb was detonated under his patrol jeep in the same area.
Further to the north is Nachal Oz, some ten kilometers south of Sderot. Just four days ago, Palestinian terrorists infiltrated and murdered two Israelis at the Nachal Oz Crossing fuel depot, under the cover of heavy mortar fire.
"Calling Egypt-Israel Border a 'Peace' Border is a Dangerous Mistake"
Amidst all the terrorist dangers in the area, Yellin feels that one of the worst is the open Egyptian-Israeli border along the Sinai Desert, through which Hamas terrorists from Gaza and Sudanese refugees easily sneak. "If Israel continues to ignore the dangers there and continues to call it a 'peace border,' this will be a grave and dangerous mistake," Yellin told Arutz-7's Hebrew newsmagazine.
Speaking of the need to restore "Zionism" to the thinking of typical central-Israel Jews, Yellin said, "The farmers in the field, working under the threat of rocket fire and shootings, are the real pioneers; I'm just a clerk."
Other Weekend Terrorist Attacks
Palestinians fired two Kassam rockets from the Gaza Strip at the western Negev Friday night, and two more on Saturday night. The rockets landed in open areas outside Sderot, causing no casualties or damage.
In addition, seven mortar shells were fired by Gazan terrorists over the weekend. One landed south of Ashkelon, and the others landed in and near Nachal Oz, causing damage to a stockroom and electric lines.
Sunday afternoon:
Arabs in Hawara, near Yitzhar in the Shomron, hurled a shock grenade at an IDF jeep, lightly wounding four Border Guard fighters... An Arab infiltrator from Gaza was caught near Kibbutz Alumim, and was taken for interrogation... Arabs stoned a bus near Pisgat Ze'ev outside northern Jerusalem, lightly injuring a female soldier...
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and PA chief Mahmoud Abbas met this evening at Olmert's home in Jerusalem.
