A Palestinian mortar shell was reportedly landed just close to an Israeli army officer to the south of Gaza Strip, Israeli media reports said Sunday.
The reports pointed out that the mortar shell landed just near the Israeli army chief of the southern command, Yoa’f Glant and the chairman of the ‘regional council’, Haieem Yalin, with no causalities reported.
Both Israeli officials were in a field tour in the Nair Auz Israeli area, close to the Gaza Strip city of Khan Younis on eastern Gaza-Israel border lines.
The media outlets also added that three other mortar shells landed about 20 meters away from Glant and Yalin, after the two had arrived at arable areas, just near the Gaza-Israel border lines.
The aL-Qassam brigades, the armed wing of the ruling Hamas party in Gaza, claimed responsibility for the mortar fire.
In a statement, received by RNA, the armed Palestinian group said the shelling was a natural response to the Israeli military escalation on the costal region since June2007.
Last week, a Hamas gunfire wounded an aide to the Israeli internal security minister, Avi Dichter, near the Gaza-Israel border lines in southern Gaza Strip.
Israeli attacks on the coastal enclave have recently increased after a Palestinian cross-border attack in eastern Gaza, claimed the lives of two Israeli civil servants and wounded four others, who used to work in the fuel terminal of Nahal Auz.
