LIMITED IDF OPERATION IN GAZA

Limited IDF Operations Underway in Southern Gaza (INN)

(IsraelNN.com) Eight Palestinian Authority terrorists in Gaza were eliminated in IDF counter-terrorism operations by noontime on Tuesday, including six in southern Gaza who were killed in Israel Air Force air strikes near Khan Younis. Four soldiers suffered from smoke inhalation.

At least 30 tanks and bulldozers moved into the areas around Khan Younis and Rafiah in southern Gaza early Tuesday morning, clashing with PA terrorists who fired rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs) and mortars. Israeli forces destroyed a gas station on the road between the two Gaza cities, both hotbeds of smuggling and terrorist activity. More than 20 PA suspects were taken into custody during house-to-house searches before 9:00 am, as Israeli soldiers deployed on rooftops and in the streets.

Three terrorists from the Islamic Jihad who approached ground forces in an effort to carry out an attack were eliminated in an air strike. A subsequent air strike on the unused airport in Rafiah, on the Gaza-Egyptian border, critically injured three other PA terrorists, according to Arab sources. The condition of two other members of the targeted Popular Resistance Committees (PRC) cell is unknown.

Four IDF soldiers who suffered from smoke inhalation as a result of an RPG attack near Khan Yunis were evacuated to Soroka Hospital in Be'er Sheva.

An IDF spokesman described the ongoing operation, approximately one mile into southern Gaza, as "routine counter-terrorism" activity.