IDF Spokesman: On August 18, 2011, a series of terrorist attacks was perpetrated against civilians and IDF soldiers in Israel's southern region. Eight people were killed in the day's attacks and at least 31 were wounded.
The terrorists responsible for the attacks originated in the Gaza Strip and crossed into Israel via Egypt. IDF forces pursued and killed a number of the terrorists responsible for the attacks.
The Popular Resistance Committees (PRC), responsible for the terrorist attacks, is an independent terrorist organization in the Gaza Strip that is supported, subsidized and trained by the Hamas terrorist organization.
The coordinated terrorist attacks on Israeli civilian vehicles began at about noon, when gunfire was opened at an Israeli bus; 14 people were injured and evacuated to nearby hospitals. Simultaneously, fire was opened on an additional bus and two civilian vehicles, injuring several people.
An explosive device was detonated on IDF soldiers that arrived at the scene a short while afterwards, injuring several of them.
Photos: IDF Spokesperson
Several mortar shells were fired from the Gaza Strip at soldiers conducting routine maintenance work on the security fence on the Israel-Egypt border. IDF forces pursued the terrorists who carried out the attacks and exchanged fire with them. (More...)
The weaponry found on the bodies of the terrorists who conducted the attacks included explosive vests and other explosive devices, a commando knife, self-made fragmentation grenades, Kalashnikov rifles, catridges and handcuffs (indicating that the terrorists intended to try to abduct an IDF soldier during the attacks).
Six civilians were killed as well as one soldier - St-Sgt Moshe Naftali, a combat soldier from the Golani Brigade - and a police officer - Chief Warrant Officer Pascal Avrahami, 49-year old father of three, member of the counter-terrorism unit.
Flora Gez and her husband Moshe Gez, as well as Flora's sister Shula Karlinsky and her husband Dov Karlinsky were killed on their way to vacation together in Eilat. Another of the Israeli civilians killed has been identified as Yosef Levy of Holon. Yitzhak Sela, of Beersheba, an Egged driver, was killed instantly when a suicide bomber blew himself up next to his bus.
PM Netanyahu: "Those who gave the order to murder our citizens, while hiding in Gaza, are no longer among the living."
IDF Spokesman: In response to terror attacks in south, IDF targets sites in Gaza
DM Barak: The terrorist attack originated in Gaza, most of the perpetrators were killed and the senior terrorists responsible for the attack were killed shortly after it.