The new American Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, affirmed Israel’s right to defend her citizens in a press conference today, after Israel responded to a Palestinian attack on an IDF patrol.  Reuters noted Clinton’s main concern would be to get a durable cease-fire on the ground and to attend to the needs of the civilian population.

However, she also noted,

It is regrettable that the Hamas leadership apparently believes that it is in their interest to provoke the right of self-defense instead of building a better future for the people of Gaza.


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The IDF Spokesman confirmed the strikes in an announcement, saying they were a response to a bomb attack against a military patrol along the border with the Gaza Strip which killed a warrant officer and wounded three others on Tuesday morning, including one who was severely hurt.

The IDF holds Hamas responsible for preserving the peace in Israel's South, and will respond harshly to any attempt at undermining it, the announcement added.

On Wednesdat morning, a Kassam rocket fired by Palestinian terrorists in the Gaza Strip landed in an open field in the western Negev.

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On Tuesday the IDF had received a green light to respond harshly to the bomb attack, though defense officials would not provide details on the planned response, but said it would be in line with Israel's new policy to respond aggressively to any attack following the end of Operation Cast Lead earlier this month.

A Beduin tracker was killed and an officer was seriously wounded when a large bomb exploded next to their patrol along the border near the Kissufim Crossing. Two other soldiers were lightly wounded. The bombing was the first lethal attack by the Palestinians since Israel withdrew from Gaza last week.

The family of the fatality requested that neither his name nor his photo be published.

Following the incident, the IDF fired at several targets inside Gaza, and soldiers briefly crossed the border in search of the attackers. The troops left Gaza by nightfall after discovering several additional explosive devices that had been planted nearby. IDF sources said the terrorists had likely taken advantage of the heavy fog Tuesday morning to plant and detonate the device.

Following the attack, Israel closed its Gaza border crossings to humanitarian aid traffic after briefly opening them Tuesday morning. Gaza border official Raed Fattouh said Israeli officials had informed him the closure was due to the attack.

Amos Gilad, head of the Defense Ministry's Diplomatic-Security Bureau, said Israel's response would not be limited to closing the crossings into Gaza.

"The response will not be the way it used to be," Gilad said in a speech at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv. "The equation has changed."

In the afternoon, a helicopter gunship struck a motorbike in Khan Yunis that was reportedly carrying a Hamas operative involved in the attack.

The IDF said it was possible that the bombing had not been carried out directly by Hamas, but by other Palestinian terror groups.

IAF helicopters hovered in the air firing machine gun bursts, Palestinian witnesses said. An IAF jet set off a loud sonic boom over Gaza City not long afterward, possibly as a warning. Palestinians reported that several people were wounded when IDF tank shells hit residential buildings in the Strip.

Not long after the bombing, a 27-year-old Gaza farmer was killed by Israeli gunfire along the border several kilometers away, according to Dr. Moaiya Hassanain of Gaza's Health Ministry. Two other Palestinians were wounded.

The army had no comment, and it was unclear whether the two incidents were related