Israel warns militants

– An Israeli general has warned Palestinian militants against carrying out attacks in revenge for them blowing up a tunnel stretching from the Gaza Strip into the Jewish state last month.

Major General Yoav Mordechai, head of a defence ministry unit responsible for activities in the Palestinian territories, made the comments in an Arabic-language video distributed on Saturday.

Referring to the Israeli operation on October 30, he said that Israel “destroyed a terror tunnel in Israeli sovereign territory,” which resulted in the death of 12 Palestinian militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

“We are aware of the plot that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group is planning against Israel,” said Mordechai.

“They are playing with fire at the expense of Gazan residents, the Palestinian reconciliation efforts and stability in the region.

“Let it be clear: any attack by Islamic Jihad will be met with a harsh and determined Israeli response.

“This will not only apply to Islamic Jihad but also to Hamas,” he said.

Israel has said it is holding the bodies of five militants retrieved from the tunnel and implied it would try to use them as bargaining chips to retrieve the remains of two Israeli soldiers believed to be held by Hamas. –AFP