Terrorists approached the border fence near Rafah in an attempt to infiltrate Israel, and opened fire on IDF forces in the area. Three of the terrorists from Gaza were killed, and there is a fourth is believed to have escaped back into the Gaza Strip.
According to the IDF, forces patrolling the border fence area encountered the terrorists, who opened fire at them, prompting the soldiers to return fire.
An Israeli Air Force aircraft, directed to monitor them, attacked the terrorists, eliminating two. Shortly after that, a tank eliminated another terrorist. The incident occurred at dawn, around 5:30 a.m., along the border fence just north of Kerem Shalom. The exchange of fire lasted several minutes, ending with one terrorist managing to escape back to Rafah despite the presence of tanks and aircraft.
The IDF emphasized that the terrorists did not cross the barrier along the Gaza Strip border. In recent weeks, IDF forces from the Gaza Division have identified an increasing number of infiltration attempts by Palestinian terrorists, mainly from the Khan Younis area, where an IDF maneuver concluded about two months ago, Ynet has reported.
In most cases, these attempts are thwarted about a kilometer from the border thanks to observation ambushes and soldier gunfire.
Thursday morning's incident is one of the most serious on the Gaza border since the first week of the war. However, the IDF continues to stress to defense forces in the area that the threat of infiltration persists and will continue in the coming years, albeit on a smaller scale involving individual cells.