By Xinhua,
Jerusalem : Israeli army said on Thursday that a Palestinian truck loaded with explosives blasted near a key border crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip earlier in the day, killing the driver and causing damage to nearby houses.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) confirmed the morning attack among the soldiers manning the Erez crossing by saying that no soldier injury was reported, local daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
But the blast killed the driver himself and caused damage to nearby houses of an Israeli community, said the report.
The Palestinian Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the suicide attack under the heavy morning fog, saying the 23-year-old driver was killed in the operation which they carried out in cooperation with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigades, a military wing of the more secular Fatah faction.
Immediately following the border attack which Jihad confirmed, Israel troops fired two missiles at a vehicle in the northern Gaza Strip and killed two militants who the IDF said were involved in the attack, as they combed the area in search of additional gunmen.
Last month, 13 Israeli soldiers were injured in a similar attack when two car bombs were set off at the Kerem Shalom crossing near the southern Gaza Strip.