As a show of goodwill following the visit by former US President Jimmy Carter, Hamas terrorists ambushed three Israeli soldiers in the Gaza strip and killed them. Haaretz.com:Three Israel Defense Forces soldiers from the elite Givati Brigade were killed on Wednesday in an exchange of heavy gunfire with Palestinian militants next to the Gaza Strip security fence.
A preliminary IDF investigation suggests that an operational error occurred during the soldiers' raid, a senior officer in the Southern Command told Haaretz.
The officer said that the army was investigating why reinforcements were not sent to back up the Givati troops and whether the soldiers were sent on the correct path.
The IDF said that the clashes occurred near Kibbutz Be'eri, in the western Negev, as troops entered the Strip to arrest a band of suspicious figures.
The soldiers were killed after troops spotted two Hamas militants planting a bomb near the Israeli border. Troops pursued the militants, only to fall into an ambush by another Hamas force lying in wait, Israeli defense officials said.
Three other soldiers were wounded in the clashes, two of them moderately, and were taken to the Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva for treatment.
The army named the slain soldiers as Corporal Matan Ovadati, 19, of Moshav Patish, Sergeant David Papian, 21, of Tel Aviv, and Sergeant Menhash al-Banyat, 20, from a Bedouin village in the Negev.
An IDF spokeswoman said soldiers had shot several Palestinian gunmen during the fighting, though there were no reports of injuries among the militants.
Israel responded with airsrikes in the Gaza, which killed 17, including a cameraman who worked for Reuters.
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The Palestinians do not want peace with Israel, because they don't recognize Israel. And I'm not convinced the Palestinians even want their own country.
.The photo above (EPA/Pavel Wolberg) shows Israeli soldiers returning from a military operation in the Gaza Strip near the border with Israel, 16 April 2008.
