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(INN) After Gaza terrorists breached the truce last Friday with a rocket attack, they broke it again on Wednesday morning with a round of sniper fire targeting IDF forces in the vicinity of Kibbutz Nirim and Nir Oz.
The IDF soldiers were guarding work on the security barrier with Gaza in the southern part of the Hamas stronghold when they came under fire. Apparently one soldier was wounded and evacuated for medical treatment, although the extent of the wound remains unclear.
After being shot at, the soldiers returned fire at the sources of the gunfire. According to Palestinian Arab reports, there is a heavy exchange of fire going on, which reportedly includes tank shell fire from the IDF and airstrikes by the IAF.
In the IDF barrage targeting east of Khan Younis in response, Tayseer al-Ismary (33), head of the surveillance unit in Hamas's "armed wing" Al-Qassam Brigades, was killed by a bullet according to local medical sources, and two other Gazans were wounded.
"In response to the firing at our forces who were east of the fence in the southern Gaza Strip, we carried out immediate attacks against the relevant targets," read an IDF statement.
Defense ministry workers who were fixing the Gaza security barrier were ordered to leave the area, and agricultural workers in the Eshkol Regional Council area near the Gaza border were ordered to cease work.
Gaza terrorists fired a rocket at Israel last Friday in a breach of the truce, making at least the third such breach since the ceasefire that ended Operation Protective Edge in August.
In response to the rocket attack, the IAF struck Gaza concrete factories used to rebuild the terror tunnels leading into Israel and built to attack Israeli civilians. Over 30 such tunnels were destroyed in the operation, but since it ended Hamas has been busily rebuilding them.
Hamas has been conducting extensive rocket tests to prepare for the next war on Israel, with the most recent round coming Wednesday morning shortly before the attack on the IDF.
