Gazan crosses into Israel with a knife, is caught by IDF

IDF troops detained a Palestinian man armed with a knife who broke into Israel from southern Gaza on Monday night, the army said.

The man was picked up “next to the point where he crossed” into Israel, the military said.

He was handed over to the Shin Bet security service for questioning.

An army spokesperson said that while the man was caught in possession of a knife, it was not immediately clear whether he intended to carry out a terror attack in Israel.

There have been past cases of Palestinians crossing into Israel from Gaza expecting to get caught simply to leave the poverty-stricken, Hamas-ruled coastal enclave.

Residents of the Gaza Strip have had to deal with severe electricity shortages, despite recent agreements that were meant to allay their power woes.

Israel, the main provider of power to Gaza, has reduced the flow at the request of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Diesel fuel from neighboring Egypt has kept the power station in the Strip running at half capacity since June 21, but deliveries were interrupted after a deadly attack on Egyptian soldiers near the border earlier this month.

The Palestinian leader is trying to put pressure on Gaza’s Hamas rulers, who seized control of Gaza from Abbas’s forces a decade ago.