Palestinian terror attack suspect. Photo: Sdot Negev Security.

Israeli security forces on Sunday thwarted a possible stabbing attack in a rural farming area close to Gaza, according to Israel’s NRG News.

The IDF and local security officials succeeded in spotting and apprehending an 18-year-old Palestinian man armed with a knife and stake as he tried to enter the Kibbutz Sdot Negev Regional Council area, east of central Gaza.

Local civilian security teams found the Palestinian, only after he’d made his way some eight kilometers from the Gaza border, to near the community of Shokeda.

“We got an alert that there had been an infiltration,” Sdot Negev security chief, Rafi Babiyan told Army radio.

The mobile teams closed in on the suspect from three directions, and the suspect gave himself up peacefully, when he realized he was surrounded.

“We disarmed him, and presume his intention wasn’t to pick carrots with the weapons,” he said.

The Palestinian had been a part-time worker in the vicinity at the beginning of the year, NRG said.

“We rely on the IDF, but incidents like this only emphasize the need for local professional and volunteer security teams, that provide a second line of defense in such situations,” Babiyan said.

In a related story, the Palestinian Ma’an News agency said Israel on Sunday reopened the Kerem Shalom commercial crossing in the southeastern Gaza Strip after it was closed for the three-day Rosh Hashanah holiday.

Israel notified the Palestinian side that 380 truckloads of goods would be allowed into the coastal enclave through the crossing, which include “32 truckloads of humanitarian aid, 24 truckloads of animal feed, 45 truckloads of goods for Gaza’s agricultural sector, one truckload of equipment for Gaza’s power authority, and two truckloads for water authorities,” according to officials

Additionally, an Israeli government statement said that 65 truckloads of gravel and 13 truckloads of cement would be allowed in for projects sponsored by the UN’s Palestine refugee agency UNRWA.