Video emerges of February attack on soldiers along Gaza border
Footage of bombing, which seriously wounded 2 servicemen, broadcast by Lebanese outlet Tuesday, amid massive violent outbreak between Israel and Hamas
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
A Hezbollah-connected Lebanese television channel on Tuesday broadcast never-before-seen footage of an attack on a group of Israeli soldiers on the Gaza border in February, in which an explosive device was set off along the security fence.
The video was given exclusively to the al-Mayadeen network in Lebanon amid a large-scale battle between Israel and terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip, which began Monday afternoon and continued into Tuesday.
The footage, from February 17, shows one soldier wearing protective gear walking up to the Gaza security fence and taking down a Palestinian flag that had been affixed to the fence east of the city of Khan Younis.
As he walks over to the other three servicemen in his patrol, a tripwire connected to the flagstaff sets off a bomb that had been buried nearby.
Two of the soldiers were seriously injured in the attack. The other two sustained moderate wounds, the Israel Defense Forces said at the time.
The military later found that the improvised explosive device had earlier been buried near the fence under the cover of heavy fog.
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group later took responsibility for the attack.
An IDF spokesperson called the attack “a serious incident that aimed at destabilizing the region.”
The spokesperson said at the time that the patrol — made up of Golani infantry soldiers and members of a combat engineering unit — was operating in accordance with standard procedures to remove any foreign object from the border fence, but that these would be reviewed.
In response to the attack, the IDF bombed a number of Hamas observation posts near the border.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
