An Israeli soldier died on Thursday from injuries suffered in a bomb attack the night before against Jewish settlers and their military escort in the Gaza Strip, the Israeli army announced.
The soldier was seriously wounded in the head when two radio-activated bombs exploded as the convoy was passing the border checkpoint of Karni and entered a security corridor leading to the Netzarim settlement in the central Gaza Strip.
The dead man was identified as David Biri, 19. An Israeli officer was also lightly wounded in the leg in the blasts.
Wednesday's attack was the most serious in the Gaza Strip for nearly two years although tension has been mounting in the area in recent weeks.
"We expect the Palestinian Authority to arrest and punish the authors of this very serious attack, which was aimed at civilians and our forces," Prime Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement.
General Yair Naveh, commander of the Israeli forces in Gaza, told reporters he believed a three-man commando was responsible for the carefully planned attack, adding that one of them was wounded.
In October 1998, a suicide bomber from the Islamic resistance movement Hamas, which is violently opposed to the peace process with Israel, killed himself and an Israeli soldier when he set off a bomb – JERUSALEM (AFP)
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