Two Hamas operatives were killed and four others wounded when the IDF opened fire on a Kassam rocket-firing cell in northern Gaza on Wednesday. Wednesday evening, an IAF air strike targeted the vehicle of a senior Hamas operative in Rafah, indicating that the IDF demonstrated that it had no intention to stop its offensive against Gaza's terror infrastructure despite the morning's tragedy. | Ahmed Awad, the head of Hamas's Kassam rocket firing unit, was killed along with another Hamas when missiles struck their car. Awad was reportedly the nephew of PA Foreign Minister Mahmoud Zahar. |
Israel was placed on high security alert of Palestinians seeking to renew suicide attacks inside the Green Line Wednesday, hours after errant IDF artillery shells tore through an apartment compound in Beit Hanoun, killing nineteen members of an extended family, including eight children. In light of the threats, Israel Police Inspector General Moshe Karadi raised the national alert level to number 5 - one below emergency level - and IDF soldiers and Police deployed additional road blocks and increased patrols along the Green Line and around cities in order to prevent infiltrations, security officials said.
Security officials said they had intelligence of four specific terror cells with explosives seeking to strike inside Israel. The officials said there were fourteen more general terror threats of cells in the final stages of preparations.