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Friday, March 8, 2002
Terrorist kills five in Atzmona. Hamas claims midnight Gaza attack
MARGOT DUDKEVITCH
Five Israelis were killed and 20 others wounded when a Palestinian terrorist infiltrated the settlement of Atzmona in the Gaza Strip just before midnight.
The terrorist opened fire in all directions and threw grenades, before being shot dead by soldiers. The wounded were taken to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba, where four were listed in serious condition and six others sustained moderate wounds, Magen David Adom said. Most of the others were treated for shock.
Eyewitnesses said the terrorist began shooting at random and throwing grenades at residents near the community's pre-military training academy. Army Radio said the wounded included youths enrolled in the academy.
Soldiers exchanged fire with the attacker for nearly 20 minutes before killing him.
Victims in critical and serious condition were taken by bulletproof ambulances to the Kissufim crossing, where medics stabilized their condition before they were flown by helicopter to Beersheba's Soroka Hospital.
Security forces searched the community to ensure that no additional terrorists were at large. During the ordeal, residents were asked to remain in their homes and turn off their lights, and members of the community's emergency response team were deployed.
An anonymous caller identified the gunman as Muhammad Farahat, a youth from Gaza, and said he was a member of the Hamas military wing, Izzadin Kassam. The caller said he carried out the attack to avenge Israel's killing of Palestinians in a spate of military raids into refugee camps.
Residents said the terrorist entered the community from the direction of Rafah, in the southwest sector of the Gaza Strip, and cut through two perimeter fences.
'I was at home and I heard an explosion, apparently from a grenade... and then I heard a long burst of gunshots,' resident Yisha Zmiri told Army Radio. 'All I can see are ambulances and army.'
'I was watching television when I heard gunfire outside very close,' said Elisheva Weiss, the mother of nine, speaking by phone from the settlement to Israel Radio. She said settlers were instructed by loudspeaker to stay in their houses and keep their lights off.
The attack was the latest in a spiral of Israeli- Palestinian violence which has threatened to bring their 17-month-old conflict to the brink of war.
The attack came at the end of a day of violence in which IDF units struck at Palestinian positions all over the West Bank and Gaza Strip, killing 13 gunmen.
Earlier yesterday, there were three Palestinian bombing attempts.
In yesterday's violence, 10 Israelis and an American tourist were wounded when a suicide bomber blew himself up in the hotel lobby at the Eshel Hashomron complex in Ariel yesterday afternoon.
In Jerusalem, an alert waiter in the Caffit cafe in the German Colony neighborhood thwarted an attempted suicide bombing by disconnecting wires attached to a bomb a Palestinian was carrying. Police took the man into custody.
And in Karkur, near Pardess Hanna, the alertness of a worker prevented what could have been a deadly bomb attack.
In Memoriam
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