IDF retaliates against two terrorists on Gaza border, two hit

An IDF bulldozer prevented Palestinians from retrieving the body of a suspected terrorist who was killed while reportedly placing an improvised explosive device near the border fence with the Gaza Strip on Sunday morning.

Video from the scene uploaded to social media on Sunday morning showed a crowd of Palestinian youth throwing stones towards an Israeli bulldozer sent to retrieve the bodies of the dead suspect.

The graphic footage showed the bulldozer drive at high speed towards a group of Palestinian youth to prevent them from taking a body. Several people were seen carrying one individual, but the bulldozer was seen lifting the body of the deceased suspect from the ground before it returned towards Israel along with an IDF tank.

— Anna Ahronheim (@AAhronheim) February 23, 2020
The Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza was quoted by Maan News Agency as saying that another two men were injured by IDF gunfire while trying to retrieve the body and the wounded individual.

According to the IDF’s Spokesperson’s Unit, two Palestinians were identified approaching the fence and placing an improvised explosive device on it near the southern city of Khan Younis and were fired upon by troops from the military’s Kfir brigade “who were deployed to the location following the detection” of the suspects.

Palestinian Islamic Jihad called the incident “a brutal crime” and vowed to “not let the occupation deal with us as it does with some Arab states. We are placing our hands on the trigger and we will avenge the blood of the martyrs by firing on Tel Aviv.”

Last week Defense Minister Naftali Bennett said that Israel would begin to “hoard” the bodies of Palestinian terrorists to use as “bargaining chips” to pressure Hamas to release of the two fallen IDF soldiers and two Israeli citizens held by the terror group in the Gaza Strip.

While the IDF said that it had “identified a hit,” there were no Palestinian reports of casualties.

The incidents come as Israel is trying to broker a long-term ceasefire arrangement with the Hamas-run coastal enclave.

Over a dozen rockets and mortars as well as countless explosive balloons and condoms have been fired towards southern Israel as tension spiked following the release of US President Donald Trump’s Middle East peace plan.

In mid-February following the launching of several projectiles into southern Israel, Jerusalem announced it would reduce the Gaza fishing zone from 15 to 10 nautical miles and reduced the number of work permits from 2,000 to 500 for Gaza businessmen to enter Israel.

The restrictions were lifted several days later.

On Saturday evening former defense minister and the Chairman of Yisrael Beteinu party Avigdor Liberman revealed that Mossad Director Yossi Cohen and the Head of the IDF’s Southern Command Maj.-Gen.Herzi Halevi made a secret visit to Qatar earlier this month.

During the visit, which lasted less than a day, the two reportedly “begged” the Qataris to keep sending money to the blockaded Strip. Qatar, who is the main financial provider to Gaza, sends millions of dollars to Hamas every month.

Last week Israel’s Defense Minister Naftali Bennett warned that “the lawless conduct of Hamas leadership is bringing us closer to fatal action against them. We will not announce when or where, but no one will be immune.”

“The State of Israel does not want a war with Hamas in Gaza, but we have a commitment to the security of southern residents,” he said. “Hamas faces the choice: to choose life and economic prosperity or to choose terror and pay an unbearable price.”