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World Jewish News
IDF soldier seriously hurt in Gaza, possibly by friendly fire
12.01.2009
Four Israel Defense Forces soldiers were wounded on Monday, one of them seriously, as Israeli forces pressed on into the 17th day of an offensive aimed at destroying Hamas terror infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.
The four IDF paratroopers were wounded in an incident in northern Gaza, three of them sustaining minor injuries. The military launched an investigation into the incident, examining the possibility that they were wounded by IDF fire.
Meanwhile Monday, a paratroopers unit uncovered a tunnel dug by Hamas militants in Gaza, apparently meant to transfer suicide bombers into Israel.
The tunnel was dug from a house some 300 meters from the border fence. IDF forces destroyed the tunnel and paratroopers shot a female would-be suicide bomber who tried to harm the soldiers.
Also Monday, 120 trucks loaded with humanitarian aid entered the Gaza Strip through the Kerem Shalom and Karni crossings. These trucks carried 3,100 tons of food, medical equipment, and other basic supplies, the IDF spokesperson's office said Monday.
Since the start of the operation, approximately 920 trucks of humanitarian aid, and over 1 million liters of diesel fuel were transferred to the Gaza Strip.
Earlier Monday, the Israel Air Force bombed a mosque in southern Gaza City. Israeli ground forces who entered the premises following the attack found a mass stockpile of weapons, including Qassam and Katyusha rockets.
The IDF also also attacked dozens of targets across the territory before dawn Monday.
IDF ground forces - comprising infantry, tanks, combat engineers, artillery and intelligence - were assisted by aerial attacks during the overnight operations.
The IAF reported attacking 10 Hamas targets, including five armed operatives, four weapons storehouses, two smuggling tunnels dug under the house of militants, one tunnel dug under Gaza's border with Egypt and one rocket launching position.
Troops from the Golani Brigade reported a number of hits on armed gunmen during gunbattles in the northern Gaza Strip. The Givati Brigade, meanwhile, uncovered one mortar shell.
The Israel Navy accompanied the ground forces during the raids, attacking Hamas locales from the sea.
The Israel Defense Forces on Sunday began deploying reservist troops to the Gaza Strip, for the first time since Israel began its offensive on the Hamas-ruled territory over two weeks ago.
An IDF spokesman said that despite the deployment, thousands more reservists who would comprise a new, expanded phase in the ground operation were still in training and have not been sent to battle.
Meanwhile, IDF troops late Sunday continued to surround Gaza City while the Israel Air Force launched a fierce attack on some 20 smuggling networks in the southern Gaza Strip.
Palestinian medical officials said some 60 Palestinians died in Gaza on Sunday, including 17 who succumbed to their wounds from days earlier. The IDF said some 40 militants were either wounded or killed during the army's Sunday offensive.
The location of the ground fighting, on the southwest side of the Hamas-ruled territory's biggest population center, suggested Israel was intensifying a more than two-week-old offensive. Troops had previously kept to the outskirts of urban areas in Gaza.
Источник: Haaretz
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