Commandos enter Rafah, arrest two Hamas militants

For the first time since the disengagement from the Gaza Strip last year, IDF special forces entered the border area of Rafah last night and arrested two Palestinian brothers, members of Hamas who security services say were planning to carry out a large terrorist attack against Israel.

During the operation, which took place under cover of darkness, the IDF forces withdrew immediately after the capture of the two militants, and no shots were fired.

An IDF spokesman described the raid as a "surgical operation," stressing that neither gunfire nor tanks had been necessary. He also said that the raid was an isolated incident and did not signal a new tactic in the war against the militants.

"They [the two arrested militants] were involved in something that was supposed to happen very soon," he said without offering further details.

The decision to use ground troops stemmed from the urgency of the situation and the relatively low danger involved.

The two militants are Mustafa and Osama Ma'amar, who Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said were not members of the group, but local activists confirmed as sons of a prominent local Hamas leader and known to be members.

Family members said that one of the brothers was a doctor who trained in Saudi Arabia and worked in Sudan, which is considered a cauldron of international jihadist activity.

Israeli ground forces have entered Gaza a total of three times since Israel completed its unilateral withdrawal from the area last September, but yesterday marked the first time troops arrested militants.

In the other incursions, troops cleared explosives near the border, and briefly entered Gaza to kill three militants who were launching rockets.

Hamas confirmed yesterday's incursion, saying troops entered the southern Gaza Strip, east of the town of Rafah, about 700 meters (yards) to storm a house, make the arrests, and then withdraw. They stayed in for about an hour, the group said.

Also yesterday, three Qassam rockets were fired against Israel from the northern Gaza Strip. Two landed inside Palestinian territory and one hit fields near the western Negev town of Sderot.

A woman was treated for shock, probably due to the use of the Red Dawn warning system.

On Friday a mortar round hit near Kerem-Shalom. No damage or casualties were reported.

A road side bomb was detonated yesterday against an IDF patrol passing near the fence of the southern Gaza Strip. There were no injuries.

On Friday, a bomb exploded in the West Bank, near the settlement of Neve Daniel, in Gush Etzion. At the time the areas was full of Israeli hikers. No one was injured.

The bomb was detonated remotely with the use of a cellular telephone.

This is the second incident in the area in recent weeks. Previously, Palestinians stabbed two Israeli hikers and caused them moderate injuries.

An IDF patrol shot and wounded an Islamic Jihad fugitive yesterday at Kafr Kud, west of Jenin. The soldiers had arrived in the village to arrest the militant, and fired when they saw he was armed with a pistol on the roof. He was slightly injured and was arrested.

Four other wanted Palestinians were arrested yesterday in the environs of Bethlehem and the Ramallah.

A Fatah militant, wanted by the security forces, was seriously injured by a bomb he tried to throw against IDF troops in Nablus yesterday.

In three other incidents in the West Bank yesterday, bombs were thrown at IDF patrols and in one case shots were fired near Nablus and Qalqilyah. There were no IDF injuries.