Artillery (archive)
Artillery (archive)Flash 90

Terrorists operating from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip approached Israeli forces along the border with Gaza Sunday afternoon, prompting the IDF to launch an artillery barrage on terrorist positions in the Strip.

The incident occurred after several armed terrorists on the Israel-Gaza frontier crossed the Gaza security fence and entered Israeli territory.

In response, IDF forces fired at least seven artillery shells at the terrorists who had fired upon the Israeli unit.

It is unclear if there were any casualties as a result of the Israeli artillery fire.

Initial reports claimed that the terrorists had opened fire on an IDF engineering unit.

The IDF confirmed reports by Gaza media outlets regarding the artillery fire, saying that the fire was directed at three terrorists, but denied claims that an IDF unit had come under fire.

Tensions along the Israel-Gaza border have worsened in recent weeks, following the beginning of six weeks of violent demonstrations and attempted infiltrations into Israel along the Gaza security fence.

On March 30th, rioters kicked off the “March of Return” demonstrations, which drew tens of thousands in clashes with IDF forces along the border.

According to Gaza health officials, 29 rioters have been killed during the clashes with the IDF, with close to 3,000 more wounded.

The IDF has reported that at least 12 of the rioters killed in the disturbances are terrorists with known ties to the Hamas organization, while others approached the security fence and attempted to cross into Israel, despite warnings by the IDF prior to the riots.