Following the deaths of two Israelis since Friday in Hamas rocket attacks, the IDF hit back overnight and early Wednesday morning. An Israel Air Force craft fired a missile at terrorists in southern Gaza, while in northern Gaza, ground forces pounded enemy targets.
Though PA sources reported an IAF attack in the north, the IDF stated that an exchange of fire broke out with armed gunmen - apparently a mortar shell launching cell - after which the soldiers entered Gaza. The IDF reported one casualty among the Arab attackers. The PA reported that another two civilians were also killed.
In southern Gaza, one Hamas terrorist was killed by Israeli fire near Khan Yunis - alongside the former Jewish town of N'vei Dekalim - and two Islamic Jihad terrorists were wounded. An IDF regiment commander, a Lt.-Col., was lightly wounded, but he refused to be taken for medical treatment and continued fighting alongside his men.
In Judea and Samaria, the IDF arrested 12 wanted terrorists during the night. Arabs hurled a Molotov cocktail and rocks at an IDF unit northwest of Ramallah, causing no injuries. One of the attackers was arrested.
This past Friday, 48-year-old Jimmy Kedoshim, a father of three who lived in Kfar Aza, not far from the Gaza border between Saad and Sderot, was killed by an Iranian-made, Hamas-fired mortar shell. Two days later, 70-year-old Shlomit Katz was killed in Moshav Yesha, nearly adjacent to southern Gaza, when Hamas terrorists fired a Grad Katyusha missile at Israel.