Army: Gaza drone drops explosives in Israel near border, IDF vehicle damaged
IDF says it opened fire at terror cell after UAV left explosive before returning to Strip; military vehicle lightly damaged but no injuries
A group of Palestinian terrorists piloted an armed drone into Israel from the Gaza Strip on Saturday, the army said in a statement.
The Israel Defense Forces said the drone left an explosive device near the security fence along the border before returning to Gaza.
It said a military vehicle was lightly damaged in the incident.
The IDF said it opened fire at the cell responsible for the drone.
No Israeli soldiers were hurt and there were no immediate reports of Palestinian injuries.
הג׳יפ על הגדר שהיה יעד פיגוע הרחפן היום ב11:40. החיילים לא נפגעו. נזק לג׳יפ. ארוע חמור המראה, יחד עם הארועים בצפון, שעידן הרחפנים החמושים כאן כדי להישאר. pic.twitter.com/eFamuTg62C
— Or Heller אור הלר (@OrHeller) September 7, 2019
Last month, the IDF said it thwarted an Iranian plot to fly “kamikaze” explosives-laden drones at Israeli territory from Syria.
Saturday’s incident came after Israeli forces attacked several military targets belonging to the Gaza terror group earlier in the day in response to rocket fire from Gaza.
The IDF said it had identified five projectiles that had crossed the border into Israeli territory.
The launches set off rocket sirens in the town of Sderot and the communities of Ibim and Kibbutz Or Haner.
There were no reported injuries. The Ynet news site said two women were being treated for shock.
At least one rocket hit an open area outside Sderot and started a small fire, Hebrew media reported.
המתיחות בדרום | תיעוד השריפה שפרצה כתוצאה מנפילת רקטה בשטח פתוח בשדרות @OrHeller
(צילום: יניב כליף) pic.twitter.com/HKKOX0Ev93
— חדשות 13 (@newsisrael13) September 6, 2019
Security camera footage reportedly from Sderot showed an explosion in the distance and city residents stopping their cars to run for cover.
The exchange of fire came hours after two Palestinian teens were reportedly killed in clashes with Israeli troops along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, in what the IDF called “especially violent” riots.
The Hamas-run health ministry identified one of those killed as 17-year-old Ali al-Ashqar. It said he was shot in the neck in the northern Gaza Strip. A second teenager was shot in the stomach east of Gaza City, the ministry said, later identifying him as Khaled al-Rabaee, 14.
The IDF had no immediate comment on the deaths but said some 6,200 Palestinians took part in the weekly “March of Return,” including hundreds that rioted.
The riots were especially violent and included the throwing of a large number of explosive devices, hand grenades and fire bombs at the fence and IDF soldiers, the army said, adding that there were extensive attempts to damage the border barrier.
During the clashes Israeli soldiers arrested two Palestinians who tried to enter Israel from northern Gaza, the IDF said.
The suspects were not armed and following their arrest were taken in for further questioning, the army said.
A spokesman for Hamas, the terror group that rules Gaza, blamed Israel for the Palestinians’ deaths and warned of a possible response.
“Israel will bear the consequences for this crime,” the Kan public broadcaster quoted Hazem Qassem saying.
The United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nickolay Mladenov, weighed in on the protests on Friday, criticizing Israel for the killing of the two protesters in a Twitter post.
“Two #Palestinian teenagers killed today at the #Gaza protests. Appalling! #Israel must calibrate its use of force, use lethal force only as a last resort, and only in response to imminent threat of death or serious injury. Protests must be peaceful. The cycle of violence must end,” Mladenov wrote.
The deadly clashes came just days after Israel lifted restrictions on fuel deliveries to Gaza, a week after curbing them by half due to rocket and mortar fire from the coastal enclave.
Israel has responded to the violence with airstrikes in Gaza on Hamas targets, in keeping with its policy of holding the terror group responsible for any attacks emanating from territory under its control.
Since the outbreak of protests on the Gaza border last year, Israel has intermittently taken a number of steps to curb outbreaks of violence from the coastal territory, such as closing border crossings, cutting fuel shipments and reducing the permitted fishing area off the coast of the Strip. It has rolled back such moves following decreases in violence.
A deal was brokered several months ago by UN and Egyptian officials to end several violent flareups in recent months between Israel and Hamas, which have fought three devastating wars since 2008, and to help stabilize the territory and prevent a humanitarian collapse.
