Violence surges on Gaza border, militants killed

Israel and Palestinian militants traded threats yesterday after two Islamic Jihad fighters were killed in fresh skirmishes along the tense Gaza Strip border.

The escalation of violence came on the eve of the second anniversary of Israel’s devastating Operation Cast Lead assault on Hamas-controlled Gaza and followed weeks of rocket fire from Gaza and retaliatory Israeli air raids.

Turning up the rhetoric, both sides said they were prepared for another round of bloodletting.

“I hope there is no need for another operation like Cast Lead,” Israel’s Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom told public radio ahead of a Cabinet meeting.

“But if this situation continues – if missiles keep being smuggled in without hindrance, if they continue shooting into Israel, trying to hit innocent civilians – then, obviously we will have to respond and respond with all our force,” he said.

And at the funeral for two members of Islamic Jihad killed in an early morning exchange of fire with Israeli troops, mourners called on the military wings of Islamic Jihad and Hamas to take revenge on Israel.

Yesterday morning, Israeli forces, backed by tanks and helicopter gunships, killed the two Islamic Jihad militants, who were apparently trying to place a bomb along the Gaza border, the army and the militant group said.

“Soldiers opened fire on members of a terrorist cell which was trying to place an explosive charge in the immediate vicinity of the security barrier,” which separates Israel from Gaza, an Israeli army spokeswoman told AFP.

“The incident happened in the south of the Gaza Strip and helicopters backed up the fire of the soldiers,” she added.

She said “soldiers received instructions not to hesitate to open fire when they saw terrorists placing booby-trap devices near the barrier.”

Witnesses also said Israeli tanks fired at least 10 shells towards Khan Yunis, damaging three homes but causing no casualties.

Late yesterday morning, the Israeli military said two rockets fired from Gaza landed in the Eshkol region in the southern Negev desert, causing no injuries.

Tension has been rising on the Gaza border, where armed Islamist groups have fired dozens of mortars and rockets into southern Israel.

In response, Israel has launched a series of air raids that it said targeted training facilities and smuggling tunnels.

It has also launched targeted assassinations of several top members of the Army of Islam, a jihadist group accused by Israel of planning new attacks.

Abu Ahmed, a spokesman for Islamic Jihad’s military wing, said the group was prepared.

“The occupation will pay the price if they even think of carrying out an escalation in the Gaza Strip,” he told mourners.

On Saturday, Hamas’s military wing also reiterated their readiness to fight Israel.

“There is a truce in effect in the field. It is real if Israel stops its aggression and ends its siege. But if there is any Israeli aggression on the Gaza Strip we will respond strongly,” said a masked spokesman for the group, who identified himself as Abu Obeideh.

“We are completely ready to answer any Israeli aggression,” he said.

Israel’s military said earlier this month that one of its tanks patrolling the Gaza border had been hit by a Russian-made Kornet anti-tank rocket, the first time such a weapon had been encountered there.

On Saturday, Hamas hinted it possessed a secret weapon. “Our weapons are few compared to those of the Israeli occupation, but we have something that will worry the occupation,” Abu Obeideh said.