IDF soldiers shelled on Gaza border; no injuries

Mortar attacks on army positions have persisted since Tuesday; Netanyahu set to convene security cabinet on escalation in violence

An Israeli tank fires towards Gaza, near the Israel and Gaza border on the morning of Sunday, July 27, 2014. (Photo credit: AP/Tsafrir Abayov)
An Israeli tank fires towards Gaza, near the Israel and Gaza border on the morning of Sunday, July 27, 2014. (Photo credit: AP/Tsafrir Abayov)

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip fired mortars at Israeli soldiers on Friday morning, causing no injuries, as the frequent exchanges of cross-border fire entered its fourth day.

The soldiers were operating near the southern edge of the coastal enclave, according to the IDF.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday morning was set to convene the high-level security cabinet to discuss the escalation in violence.

Meanwhile, Hamas’s military wing said Friday morning the cross-border tunnel discovered by the IDF on Thursday — the second one located this month — was constructed in 2014, and has been out of use since.

Friday was the fourth day in a row in which IDF troops on the border came under mortar fire, as troops worked to unearth cross-border underground passages from the Gaza Strip. No troops have thus far been injured in the attacks, though some engineering vehicles have been damaged, according to the army.

The army has been targeting Hamas installations in the coastal territory following the spate of some 20 mortar attacks since Tuesday. Palestinian media reported early Friday that IDF artillery had begun shelling sites in the southern Gaza Strip.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the latest barrage. The IDF did not immediately confirm the reports.

On Thursday, a Palestinian woman was killed when Israeli tank shells hit her home east of Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, the southern city’s Nasser hospital said. The woman was identified by the hospital as Zeina al-Amour, 54.

Palestinian media also reported that a number of people were injured in a series of Israeli airstrikes in the area of Rafah on Thursday, also in the southern Gaza Strip. The Israeli Air Force confirmed its aircraft hit four military posts belonging to Hamas, the de facto rulers of the Palestinian enclave, Thursday afternoon.

Smoke billows over Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip as IAF planes struck four Hamas military targets, May 5, 2016. (Screenshot/Shehab News Agency)
Smoke billows over Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip as IAF planes struck four Hamas military targets, May 5, 2016. (Screenshot/Shehab News Agency)

Also Thursday, Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon warned Hamas that Israel would not tolerate any attempts to disrupt the lives of its citizens.

“Terrorist elements in the Gaza Strip need to know that if they try to disrupt our lives, they will delivered a severe blow,” he said at a service to mark the end of Holocaust Remembrance Day. “We will not tolerate a return to a routine of shooting and attempts to harm our civilians and soldiers. We will take firm action with an iron fist, as we have in the past few days, against the terrorist organizations in the Strip, led by Hamas, which is responsible for the shooting and incidents in Gaza.”

Earlier in the day, the IDF revealed that it had discovered a Hamas “terror tunnel” burrowing into Israeli territory from the Gaza Strip. It was the second such tunnel discovered in a month. The second tunnel, which is slated to be destroyed in the coming days, is 28 meters (90 feet) deep and was located just a few kilometers from the location of another tunnel discovered and destroyed last month, the army said.

Despite the increased tension along the border with Gaza in recent weeks, the years since the 2014 conflict, known as Operation Protective Edge, have been the quietest in over a decade, in terms of rocket fire and attacks coming from the coastal enclave.

Since the discovery of the first attack tunnel last month, the IDF and the Israeli government have stressed there are no indications of an imminent large-scale conflict with the Hamas terrorist organization.

Hamas has similarly voiced through proxies that it does not wish to renew conflict with the Jewish state at this point in time.

AFP contributed to this report.

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