Gaza terrorists fired several mortar shells and short-range Kassam rockets at Israeli towns in the Gaza belt area on Tuesday. The Israel Air Force responded in the afternoon with a strike on a group of terrorists who were launching mortar shells. Pilots confirmed a strike on the group.

Arab sources in Gaza said two of the attackers were killed, and four were wounded, including one critically. The strike took place in southern Gaza, east of the border town of Rafiah.

Palestinian Authority media reported that the dead were two brothers, aged 15 and 17. The youths were standing in an area used to launch mortar shells at Israeli towns, but the reports did not acknowledge that the two were terrorists.

The mortar shells the terrorists had launched landed in open areas in the Eshkol region. No injuries were reported following the attacks.

Boiling Point Reached
Major-General Yoav Galant, head of the IDF Southern Command, compared the situation in Gaza to “a pot with popcorn made of metal that has reached the boiling point.” Israel's response to Gaza terrorism has been “thickening the pot and tightening the lid so that when the time comes, we won't be hit by the shrapnel.” Eventually, he said, Israel will need to “take care of the source of the flame somehow, because otherwise the explosion will be uncontrollable.”

Galant made his remarks at a conference on immigration and absorption held in Ashdod on Tuesday.