Terrorism Sparks Violence near Israel’s South; Several Dead

Multiple border attacks against Israel in a span of less than 24 hours have left one Israeli civilian and multiple terrorists dead. Two of the incidents involved a pair of attacks adjacent to the security fence between Israel and Gaza. According to the IDF Blog, one Israeli airstrike hit a terrorist sniper squad, while another targeted a terrorist squad with an explosive device near the fence.

The largest attack occurred Monday morning, when a pair of militants crossed into Israel from Egypt set off a roadside explosive and fired anti-tank rockets at a pair of Israeli vehicles, according to the IDF Blog. The Israeli-Arab civilian was killed and two more were injured in the onslaught.

The IDF killed both the terrorists, who were also armed with assault rifles, grenades and camouflage. In a press release, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said of the Egypt fence attack, “The operation was most likely directed against Israeli citizens and was initiated against workers building our security fence on the Egyptian border. This will not stop us.”

Said Netanyahu of the fence, “This fence is designed to prevent both terrorism and the entry of infiltrators. From our perspective, its construction is a supreme national interest. I believe that if we hadn’t decided two years ago to build the fence, we would be facing a flood of infiltrators and—no less than this—a flood of terrorism.”

(By Joshua Spurlock, www.themideastupdate.com, June 18, 2012)