A Palestinian terrorist attempted to enter southern Israel from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, Dec. 17, 2019. Photo: Screenshot.

In the first incident of its kind in some time, an attempted infiltration of southern Israel by a terrorist from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip was thwarted by the IDF on Tuesday.

The Israeli news site Mako reported that an armed Palestinian approached the border fence and was subsequently targeted by an Israeli military aerial vehicle.

The infiltrator who was fired upon was believed to have been killed.

This is the armed terrorist who attempted to infiltrate into #Israel from #Gaza earlier tonight.

His (unfulfilled) objective: to murder Israeli families living less than a mile away.

We stopped him before he could. pic.twitter.com/gQvXqVgfwm

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) December 17, 2019

The occurrence followed a tense weekend that saw riots along the border fence, in which some Palestinians threw Molotov cocktails, damaging an IDF vehicle but injuring no one.

The Gaza Health Ministry, which is run by Hamas and not always a reliable source of information, claimed that five rioters were injured.

Tuesday’s incident also coincided with celebrations in Gaza marking the 32nd anniversary of the founding of Hamas.

Top Hamas official Fathi Hamad said, “The al-Qassam Brigades will soon unveil a new chapter in the battle with the occupation.”

“Hamas will cut down the hand of anyone trying to undermine Gaza’s security stability,” he pledged. “Hamas will remain a flame of glory and pride to the Palestinians.”