(Previous Incident Code: PALIS007)

One civilian was injured in declared mortar attacks from Al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas, in Gaza to Israel whilst coming to the aid of Israeli military personnel in Netiv HaAsara, southern Israel on May 12th, 2021, according to local reports.

Gil Timor, the Deputy Chairman of the Ashkelon Beach Regional Council, was injured in the shoulder by shrapnel whilst attempting to rescue dead and wounded soldiers from a jeep, said Matan Tzuri, a journalist with Ynet.

The Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam Brigade issued a military statement, which declared its responsibility for the attack on a “Zionist “Defender” jeep near the usurped Netiv Hasara in the northern Gaza Strip.” It reported that the result was “the enemy admitted destroying the jeep, killing two soldiers and wounding others.”

As well as declaring “two dead after Al-Qassam destroyed a Zionist enclave with a Kornet missile,” Al-Qassam also released a statement which declared that they used “21 mortar shells of different calibers” for this attack.  Other sources also reported that two soliders were killed in this attack.

The Times of Israel reported the incident began when Hamas targeted an Israeli military jeep using an anti-tank guided missile killing one soldier and injuring two others. Following the attack mortars targeted the area. Several Arabic-language media sources noted that Mr Timor’s injuries were the result of a mortar.

Itamar Revivo, a colleague of Mr Timor told 13 News: “In the morning we received a warning about a possible event around Zikim, we toured the place and continued to another village, when suddenly we heard a loud explosion and received a report of a vehicle being hit. We started evacuating the wounded, and the place began to be significantly attacked.”

Following the incident a video was posted online bearing the logo of the al-Qassam Brigade which purported to show moment of the strike against the jeep.

The Barzilai Medical Center received four patients following the incident, including the soldiers, according to local journalist Emanuel Fabian.