Israel vows response to Hamas ‘violations’ after officer injured in Gaza blast |
Israel vowed on Wednesday to respond to an incident in southern Gaza’s Rafah in which a bomb exploded against an Israeli armored personnel carrier, lightly injuring an IDF officer.
The officer, who serves in the Golani Brigade, was taken to a hospital, and his family was notified, the army said.
“The Hamas terror organization continues to violate the ceasefire and President Trump’s 20-point plan,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement published in English.
“Their ongoing and continuing public refusal to disarm is an ongoing flagrant violation, and again today their violent intentions and violations were confirmed by their detonation of an IED that wounded an IDF officer,” the PMO continued.
It was unclear whether the bomb was recently planted in the area by terror operatives or it was an old explosive device from before the ceasefire.
The incident came days before Netanyahu is set to fly to Florida to meet with US President Donald Trump to discuss the next steps in the fragile Gaza ceasefire.
“Hamas must be held to the agreement that they signed on [sic], which includes removal from governance, demilitarization, and de-radicalization,” concluded the PMO, adding that “Israel will respond accordingly.”
The Israel Defense Forces said the Namer APC that was hit was involved in efforts to clear Rafah’s Jenina neighborhood — located on the Israeli side of the Yellow Line — of Hamas infrastructure.
Dozens of Hamas operatives are believed to have been holed up in tunnels in Jenina, though the army has reported killing or capturing many of them.
Israel and Hamas have repeatedly accused each other of violating the US-brokered ceasefire plan that halted two years of war triggered by the Hamas-led invasion of southern Israel on October 7, 2023.
The first phase of the truce stopped the fighting, but occasional deadly clashes have continued, mostly along the so-called Yellow Line that divides Hamas and Israeli-held territory.
Washington is keen to move on to the second........