Army says it killed two terror operatives who crossed Gaza’s Yellow Line
Strike on pair who entered IDF-controlled part of Strip comes as army probes Friday attack said to have killed five in Gaza City, raising concerns that ceasefire violated
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
The IDF said it killed two Palestinian terror operatives who crossed the Gaza ceasefire line in the Strip’s north on Saturday, in what has become a near-daily occurrence.
According to the military, the pair crossed the Yellow Line and approached reservists of the Jerusalem Brigade, “in a way that posed an immediate threat” without specifying whether they were armed or what constituted the threat.
The Israeli Air Force then struck and “eliminated the terrorists to remove the threat,” the army added.
Since the start of the ceasefire in October, the IDF has said it has killed dozens of terror operatives and other “suspects” who have crossed the Yellow Line — demarcating the military’s withdrawal in the Strip — and approached troops. Such incidents have taken place on a near-daily basis.
Saturday’s strike came a day after a separate strike in Gaza City that killed at least five, including civilians — some said to be children. The IDF said it had launched an investigation into the incident, amid concerns that the strike could amount to a violation of the US-brokered ceasefire agreement that went into effect on October 10.
Gaza’s Hamas-run civil defense agency said the majority of the victims were children and that others were injured. The deaths could not be independently verified.
The Hamas-run Gaza health ministry said on Thursday that at least 395 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire in the territory since the ceasefire came into effect. The toll cannot be verified and does not differentiate between civilians and combatants.
Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas of violating the ceasefire, with three soldiers killed in Gaza since the truce entered into force.
Separately, the army published footage on Saturday showing the demolition of Hamas tunnels on the Israeli side of the Yellow Line in the Khan Younis area of the southern Gaza Strip.
The footage was released as the IDF announced that the Kfir Brigade was being replaced in the area by the 188th Armored Brigade.
Over the past few months, the IDF said Kfir troops, alongside the elite Yahalom combat engineering unit, have demolished hundreds of “terror infrastructures” in Khan Younis, including a two-kilometer (1.2-mile) tunnel and another stretching hundreds of meters.
The Times of Israel Community.