Israel Pushes Into Southern Gaza, Killing Two
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The Israeli army pushed into southern Gaza before dawn yesterday, killing two Palestinian Arab militants, the army and Palestinian Arab officials said.
Israeli soldiers killed the two men as they approached army positions in Rafah, on the Gaza Strip’s border with Egypt, the army said.
Palestinian Arab security officials said Israeli infantry and tanks moved into Rafah before dawn and took over a swath of the Gaza-Egypt border, including the Rafah border terminal. Troops carried out house-to-house searches, and bulldozers leveled agricultural land near the border, the officials said, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the press.
The army said the operation was part of an ongoing push to uncover tunnels used by Palestinian Arab militants to smuggle weapons into the Gaza Strip from Egypt. Israel says militants have smuggled large quantities of weapons over the border since Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza last summer.