IDF soldiers from the Givati Brigade killed one terrorist in an attempted attack near the Jewish town of Netiv HaAsarah, located barely 100 meters from the security barrier with Gaza, in southern Israel.
The terrorist managed to hurl a grenade at the soldiers before he was hit by IDF gunfire. None of the soldiers were injured in the exchange, which took place on the Gaza side of the barrier.
Netiv HaAsarah became a de facto border community during the 2005 Disengagement in which 21 flourishing Jewish towns in the Gush Katif region of Gaza were destroyed by the Sharon government and their residents expelled from their homes to hotels and temporary housing.
Residents of Netiv HaAsarah were able to see their neighbors’ homes in the town of Nissanit, until the community was destroyed.
The founding families of the small Jewish town are also no strangers to pioneer life, nor are they unfamiliar with being uprooted from their homes. Netiv HaAsarah was built for them in 1982 after they were expelled from their homes in the Sinai as part of the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian treaty signed by the Begin government.
According to doctors at a Gaza hospital, IDF soldiers also killed two other terrorists as well on Saturday.
The two were eliminated as they tried to plant a bomb along the northern security barrier near the town of Beit Hanoun, which is located less than a mile away from the western Negev community of Sderot in southern Israel. Both were members of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas's Fatah organization's Al Aksa Martyr's Brigades.
The IDF Spokesperson's Office declined to comment.
IAF Air Strike Near Jabaliya
Israeli Air Force pilots struck a rocket launching cell near the town of Jabaliya in northern Gaza Saturday night.
According to local sources, four terrorists were hit. Initial reports said two were lightly wounded but information on the other two terrorists was not available.
At least two of the wounded operatives belong to the Islamic Jihad terrorist organization, which works hand-in-hand with the Hamas terror group which rules Gaza.
IDF sources confirmed the air strike targeted a terror cell responsible for firing rockets and mortars at Jewish communities in southern Israel.
Gaza-based terrorists fired three Kassam rockets and three mortar shells at the western Negev earlier Saturday.
Two rockets exploded within the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council area. No one was injured and no damage was reported. A third rocket missed the mark altogether and landed on the Gaza side of the security barrier.