IDF airstrike thwarts attempt to plant bomb on Gaza border; terrorist killed

A Palestinian was killed and three others were injured by Israeli artillery fire on Wednesday in the northern Gaza Strip after the Israeli army said the four planned to attack forces on the borderline.

An Israeli warplane targeted a site allegedly belonging to Palestinian resistance movement Hamas in the town of Beit Lahia on Wednesday.

The spokesman, Ashraf al-Qudra, identified the person killed as Musa Abu Zuaiter, 31, and said the casualties were the result of Israeli rocket fire. The Gaza Strip has been under a tight Israeli blockade since the Islamic Hamas movement violently took over the coastal enclave in the summer of 2007, since then Israel has imposed tight security restrictions on import and export.

Local residents in the Hamas Islamist-run enclave said the incident occurred on a beach about 1 km (half a mile) from the Israeli-built border fence in the northern part of the territory.

Israeli farmers in the area reportedly were told by the IDF to avoid the Gaza border fence area following the strike because of possible retaliatory gunfire.

According to the basic Palestinian law, issuing an execution sentence against any Palestinian by any court has to be approved by the President of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA).

A military court in the Israeli-besieged Gaza Strip has sentenced four people to death on charges of spying for the Tel Aviv regime.

Lerner said 18 months ago, more than 2,200 Palestinians and more than 70 Israelis were killed in a 50-day war between Israel and Hamas before a ceasefire.

Earlier Wednesday, a number of Israeli armored tanks and bulldozers infiltrated the Gaza borders with Israel, east of Gaza city, and razed Palestinian-owned agricultural land before withdrawing from the area.