The military wing of Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility Sunday afternoon for an attempted suicide attack on an IDF base in the Gaza Strip earlier in the day, in which three Palestinian terrorists were killed.
The militants' booby-trapped vehicle exploded after they opened fire on IDF troops at the junction of the Gush Katif bloc of settlements.
Israeli sources said the car drove up to the IDF post and one of the passengers opened fire at the soldiers before the vehicle exploded.
No soldiers were wounded in the attack, but four troops were evacuated to Soroka Medical Center in Be'er Sheva suffering from shock.
According to the head of IDF troops in the Gaza Strip, Colonel Kobi Barak, the driver lost control of the vehicle after a Givati soldier fired on the car, and the car blew up near the concrete blocks that surround the post. Barak noted that from the remains of the car, it appears that the explosive device weighted dozens of kilograms.
The Jerusalem Brigades said that three of its members carried out a "heroic martyrdom operation against a Zionist military checkpoint."
According to the group, two of the three militants inside the bomb-laden vehicle were meant to open fire on troops at the post, as the third drove the car inside the base and then detonated the explosives.
"Preliminary findings show the vehicle was loaded with explosives which were detonated from within," an Israeli source said.
Palestinian witnesses said that after the explosion, IDF tanks opened fire at targets in the nearby Khan Yunis refugee camp, damaging a home but causing no casualties.
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