JERUSALEM -- The Israeli military struck a Gaza observation post on Sunday, killing three Palestinian militants after the troops found a bomb planted along the border.
The military said a tank fired a shell at the militant position in southern Gaza after Israeli troops detonated an explosive device found along the security fence with Gaza that was meant to harm soldiers patrolling the frontier.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said three people were killed, and the Islamic Jihad militant group identified them as its members.
Gaza militants regularly plant explosives near the sensitive frontier, occasionally harming Israeli soldiers. On Saturday, militants briefly infiltrated Israel and set a fire. In response, Israel struck Hamas positions.
"We will not tolerate attacks against us from the Gaza Strip," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at his weekly Cabinet meeting. "The army and the security forces are working around the clock to protect the State of Israel, Israeli citizens and Israel's borders."
The violence comes at a tense time along the frontier. More than 110 Palestinians have been killed in weekly protests that began March 30 and are aimed at lifting an Israeli and Egyptian blockade of Gaza imposed after Hamas seized power in 2007.
Hamas has vowed to continue the rallies. Israel says it is defending its border as well as its communities nearby. It accuses Hamas of trying to carry out attacks under the cover of protests.
Meanwhile, insurgents excavated graves in a cemetery in a refugee camp in the Syrian capital Damascus in search of the remains of three Israeli soldiers who have been missing since Israel's invasion of Lebanon 36 years ago, a Syria-based Palestinian official said.
Anwar Raja of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said the bodies of the three Israeli soldiers who have been missing since a 1982 battle in Lebanon were transferred to Syria after the incident.
Israel says that on June 11, 1982, five of its soldiers disappeared in a battle near the Lebanese village of Sultan Yacoub close to the Syrian border. Several years later, two of the missing soldiers were returned alive to Israel in prisoner exchanges with Syria and the Pelstinian group. The fate of the remaining three is still unknown.
Last week, Syrian troops regained control of the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk from members of the Islamic State group after a monthlong battle. Before the Islamic State took the camp, several insurgent groups had a presence there including al-Qaida-linked gunmen.
Raja said the insurgents' aim was to find the remains of the soldiers and transfer them to Israel. The refugee camp is home to the old Martyr's Cemetery where Palestinian fighters and commanders are buried. He said all tombs in the cemetery were excavated.
Raja added that Syrian security forces, while examining the belongings of gunmen being transported to northern Syria earlier this month, arrested a woman and confiscated two bags of soil she was carrying, apparently from the cemetery, and sent them to authorities for DNA analysis.
"This demonstrates that [the insurgents] are keen to determine whether the Israeli soldiers were buried in this cemetery," he said, denying reports that the bodies were ever buried in it.
The department in charge of Israelis missing in action in the Israeli prime minister's office refused to comment.
Rajas said the Islamic State and other insurgents dug up the past years' graves in search of the remains.
A Section on 05/28/2018