Israeli soldiers were busy over the weekend. Israeli Soldiers. Illustrative. By Joshua Spurlock
It was an intense start to the weekend in Israel, as security forces apprehended the terrorists believed to be behind the terror stabbing of 18-year-old Dvir Sorek and shut down an attempted attack at the Gaza border—twice—in just two days. On Saturday, a group of four terrorists from Gaza sought to cross the border with Israel carrying AK-47 rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers and grenades, according to posts on the IDF Twitter page. The IDF tweeted that “once one of the terrorists crossed into Israel, our troops opened fire. The terrorists were neutralized.” The tweet also noted that one grenade was thrown by the terrorists.
A follow-up tweet showed a range of weapons, noting that “these are the weapons possessed by the terrorists who attempted to infiltrate into Israel from Gaza last night. Their (unfulfilled) objective: murdering Israelis.” A separate tweet saluted the female border-monitoring soldier, given the alias “Sargent Y”, noting she “spotted 4 armed terrorists on their way to carry out a brutal terror attack in Israel. Because of her they were stopped. And innocent lives were saved.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in comments released by his office on Saturday night, commended “the IDF unit that acted quickly and efficiently on the border with Gaza and prevented a terrorist infiltration of our territory.”
He continued, “Hamas is responsible for all aggression emanating from the whole of Gaza. Israel will continue to act to thwart infiltrations of its territory and attacks on our citizens.”
The next day, another armed Gaza terrorist advanced toward the border fence with Israel, with an IDF Tweet noting that the terrorist “opened fired at IDF troops, who responded with fire towards him. Our tanks also fired at a Hamas target in Gaza.”
The same weekend Gaza terrorists were unsuccessfully trying to carry out attacks in Israel, the Israelis were capturing two suspects believed to have been behind last Wednesday’s murder of Sorek. Another post to the IDF Twitter account on Saturday announced the arrests, while noting that “we will continue in our fight against terror.”
Netanyahu, in additional comments released by his office on Saturday night, praised the security forces for making the arrests within 48 hours of the terror attack. “In recent years our forces have laid hands on all of the Palestinian murderers who have attacked Israelis and today they have done so again,” said Netanyahu. “We will continue to forcefully fight terrorism on all fronts.”
Prime Minister’s Office Spokesman Ofir Gendelman posted a tweet quoting Lt. Col. “S”, who headed the unit that arrested the Palestinian terrorists, as saying, “We came to their houses & took them out of their beds. They couldn’t believe that we found them so quickly, only 2 days after the murder.”
Concluded Gendelman in his tweet, “We always get the terrorists who kill our people.”
In a separate tweet, Gendelman said that one of the arrested suspects is a Hamas member. In that Saturday tweet, Gendelman said that the “investigation is still ongoing.”
Israeli President Reuven Rivlin responded to Saturday’s events in his own comments published by Israel, calling the day “tense.”
Said Rivlin, “I salute our forces working night and day in Judea and Samaria and in Gaza. Thank you, the intelligence and operational units, for capturing the abominable terrorists responsible for the murder of Dvir Sorek.”
“Thank you, the observers who sit with concentration and professionalism at the monitoring devices, and the heroic soldiers for stopping the severe terrorist attack planned by the criminal terrorist squad.”
(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, August 11, 2019)