IDF kills four Hamas gunmen in tactical shift in Gaza

The Israel Defense Forces killed four Hamas gunmen near the Gaza border yesterday. Although Israel claims to remain committed to the lull (the tahadiyeh) with Hamas, the IDF has changed its tactics on the Gaza Strip border. In the past two weeks, IDF units have crossed into the Gaza Strip several times to strike at terrorists and foil potential attacks.

One Israeli soldier was lightly wounded in the action.

A Hamas spokesman told Haaretz that the group was not about to cancel the truce but intended to reexamine it.

In response to the Israeli strike, Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip fired six mortar shells and two Qassam rockets at the western Negev, causing no injuries or damage.

Defense sources told Haaretz that the army is now authorized to act within what the IDF calls the "security parameter" - a several-hundred-meter strip beyond the border fence. The troops are allowed to act only against clear threats and with the approval of a senior commander.

The fragile five-month truce began to unravel on November 4 when IDF paratroopers killed six Hamas gunmen after discovering a tunnel close to the Kisufim roadblock. Since then IDF forces have crossed the border at least twice to dismantle explosives or strike militants who tried to plant bombs near the fence.

Until last week's operation, the IDF refrained from offensive action to neutralize threats.

Earlier yesterday, IDF paratroopers crossed the border and opened fire on a group of Palestinian gunmen approaching the security fence, killing four. The militants were trying to lay an explosive device near the fence, the army said.

Palestinian Health Ministry official Dr. Moawiya Hassanain said the bodies were retrieved by ambulances and identified as Mahmoud Siam, Rami Farina, Mohsen al-Kudra and Ismail Abu al-Allah. A fifth gunman apparently got away.

During an ensuing gunbattle, the Palestinians, covered by Hamas units behind them, fired a number of mortar shells at the IDF troops. Israeli gunships fired at open areas to prevent Hamas from receiving back up.

One IDF soldier sustained a light wound to his hand, and was taken for treatment to the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva.

"Israel is not interested in the tahadiyeh and is acting to bring it to an end," a Hamas spokesman, Fawzi Barhoum, told Haaretz. "This is a clear violation of the truce and the resistance has a right to respond to any attack," he said.

"There is no decision about the truce but the matter will be reexamined. We're preparing for any scenario, whether Israel sticks to the agreement or violates it. We will retaliate to what happened today," he said.

"We are looking at the relative calm around us and know that under the surface other things are brewing," said Defense Minister Ehud Barak Tuesday in a visit to the army's Southern Command, in charge of Gaza operations.