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Barak Pledges Response to Gaza Tunnel Blast
[An Nahar] Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak blamed Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, on Friday for the detonation of an explosives tunnel along the Gazoo border which maimed a soldier, and said he was mulling how and when to respond.

The blast, which was claimed by the armed wing of the ruling Islamist Hamas movement, took place several hours after a Paleostinian teenager was rubbed out by troops in the same area, just east of the southern city of Khan Yunis, Paleostinian medical officials and witnesses said.

"Israel views with great seriousness the detonation of an explosive tunnel along the border with the Gazoo Strip, south of Kissufim," he said in a statement issued by his office early on Friday, just hours after the blast struck.

"Defence Minister Barak said that Israel sees Hamas as responsible for the incident and will examine how and when to respond."

The Israeli military said the blast had thrown an army vehicle 20 meters into the air, although no one was inside it at the time.

"During routine activity just inside the security fence, there was a large kaboom that caused a vehicle to be thrown into the air. Luckily no one was in the vehicle at the time," a front man said.

A nearby soldier suffered minor injuries, probably from shrapnel, the front man said.

Military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich said the blast had "left a crater which was five meters deep and four meters wide."

"This tunnel is one of the most important discoveries in recent years. It contained a huge quantity of explosives," she told news hounds late on Thursday.

She said a group of soldiers had gone some 200 meters into Gazoo territory in order to dismantle bombs in the sector and were about to return when the blast hit.

"The kaboom took place as the soldiers were getting ready to go back and fix a section of the fence which had been damaged," she said. "A military vehicle was thrown 20 meters into the air by the kaboom."

The blast was claimed in a statement by Hamas gunnies from the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades who said they were responsible for "an attack with explosives which maimed a Zionist soldier."

Several hours earlier, Hmeid Abu Daqqa, 13, was killed by bullets fired from an Israeli helicopter in the same area, health ministry front man Ashraf al-Qudra told Agence La Belle France Presse.

"Thirteen-year-old Hmeid Yunes Abu Daqqa was killed by bullets fired from an Israeli helicopter during an incursion in Abasan and Al-Qarara," he said, referring to two neighborhoods east of Khan Yunis.

Witnesses confirmed that Israeli helicopters had opened fire as tanks carried out an incursion, sparking a brief exchange of fire with cut-thoats.

A military front man on Friday confirmed troops had been operating in the area and had fired "towards open areas in the vicinity" after coming under attack by gunnies.

"During a routine activity west of Nirim, troops found a number of bombs and detonated them in a controlled manner. As a result of earlier fire toward them, they fired towards open areas in the vicinity," he said.

He refused to confirm or deny whether a helicopter had been involved in the incident.

In recent weeks, gunnies have detonated several bombs against Israeli troops operating in the area east of Khan Yunis.

On October 23, a soldier was seriously hurt and two others lightly maimed by a device attached to a gate in the border fence. Four days earlier, a military vehicle and a section of the fence were damaged by another bomb.

"During the past two weeks, a number of bombs were uncovered in the area adjacent to the security fence in the southern Gazoo Strip," an army statement said.

Following the October 23 blast, the army stepped up its activity in the area "in order to uncover additional bombs and fix the security fence."

Posted by: Fred 2012-11-10
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=355727