A combined operation between the Shabak, the police and the IDF uncovered a Hamas money smuggling operation.

Faiz Mizbach Mohammad Atar, a resident of Beit Lahiya, Gaza, and Ayatollah Alu Abdul Karim Sarhan, a resident of Jabalya, Gaza were arrested.

The two had received permits to enter Israel from Gaza for the purposes of business and trade.

The two then used their permits to instead repeatedly act as financial couriers for Hamas to Arabs in Judea and Samaria.

Hamas gave the two specially prepared shoes in which they could smuggle their terror money through the various checkpoints.

The two were each transferring tens of thousands of Euros to Hamas operatives in Judea and Samaria for terror operations.

After their arrest, investigators learned that Faiz Atar’s house was regularly used for Hamas meeting. While Sirhan worked as a truck driver removing sand from various Hamas tunnel sites.

As a result of the arrests, Israel gained a lot of intelligence information on Hamas’s tunnel and terror operations.

The Shabak pointed out that every month Israel provides thousands of entry permits to Gazans for humanitarian, medical and other reasons, while Hamas terrorists then cynically attempts to use those permits to try and expand their terror operations in Judea and Samaria.

Gaza’s ruling Hamas terrorist organization has vowed to take revenge against Israel over air strikes that reportedly killed two on Saturday.

The air strikes came in response to four Qassam rocket attacks fired at southern Israel from Gaza by Hamas terrorists on Friday night.

Hamas called the retaliation an “escalation” and placed “full responsibility” on Israel.

Jewish families in the city of Sderot and the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council district were forced to race for shelter when the Red Alert siren sounded a warning just after 10 pm.

All four Qassam rockets exploded in open fields barely seconds after the siren activated.

Israeli Air Force pilots targeted a Hamas military terrorist base near Beit Lahiya the next morning in retaliation for the attacks.

Two children, ages 10 and 6, were allegedly killed when debris from the base next door struck their home, according to Hamas.

“The blood of the children killed in the Zionist raid will not flow in vain,” warned the Izz a-Din al-Qassam Brigades military wing of Hamas in a statement. “Our patience with the attacks of the enemy has its limits.”

Israel will not ignore attacks from Gaza regardless of the views of the international community – or the United States, warned Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Thursday.

Ya’alon told media, “We will not ignore the fire, or the attempted attacks whose purpose is to disrupt the lives of our citizens living in the south and to harm our forces.

“We will pursue and lay our hands on whoever threatens us,” the defense minister said.

“We will know how to act whenever and wherever necessary to thwart any attempts by terrorist forces in Gaza to strike Israeli citizens, just as we did last night.”

On Wednesday night, 33-year-old Gaza-based global jihad terrorist Mahmad Awar, a resident of Beit Lahia, was eliminated in a joint Shin Bet-Israel Air Force operation.

The strike followed a rocket attack on southern Israel earlier in the day.

The terrorist was killed in a surgical air strike with a missile fired at him while he was riding a motorcycle. A companion, 30-year-old Muhamed Ahmed – also of Beit Lahia — was also killed, and a third, Hamada Hassan, was injured.

In his “day job,” Awar worked as a Hamas ‘police officer’ but he was also responsible for firing numerous rockets at southern Israel. At the time of his death, Awar was plotting to shoot down an IDF helicopter with an anti-aircraft missile, according to a report by Rotternik. The threat was serious enough to warrant a pre-emptive strike by the military.

Most recently, Awar had been involved in a rocket attack on the southern Israeli city of Sderot during the Jewish holiday of Passover.

“This terror infrastructure is a violent and extremist Salafi cell which has carried out several rocket attacks and has attempted to implement diverse terror attacks against Israel, as well as attempts to target a helicopter,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Office explained. “The pre-emptive strike was intended to prevent Awar from executing further attacks he had planned against Israel.”

Police in Gaza have finally captured a five-foot-nine crocodile which escaped two years ago from a zoo in the Gaza city of Umm al-Naser.

It was transferred to a zoo under construction in Beit Lahiya, and will join four other crocs in a new pond.

Lieutenant Colonel Samih al-Sultan, who led the search for the massive reptile residents say was eating their small livestock and making them afraid to leave their homes, expressed his admiration for the feisty animal in an interview with the Associated Press, and wished him well in the future.  “We hope he lives a good life here with his wives,” Sultan told the AP.

According to the report, waste water workers found the crocodile two months ago, and turned to police.  After conducting an internet search to learn how to catch crocodiles, six policemen and a fisherman spent all day in a boat in the sewage pit for two weeks trying to catch the animal, and ultimately succeeded when they traded their fishing nets for shark nets.

It was allegedly smuggled into Gaza drugged two years ago, soon escaping its confinement.