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September 26, 2003
Soldier, four gunmen killed in Hebron, Gaza
By Arieh O'Sullivan
Palestinian gunmen ambushed Givati Brigade commandos attempting to arrest a key Islamic Jihad terrorist in a Gaza Strip refugee camp before dawn on Thursday, killing one soldier and wounding six others, one seriously.
The soldiers shot dead two of the gunmen in the Boureij refugee camp and wounded six more in one of the heaviest firefights in the Gaza Strip in months. An infant was also mortally wounded in the crossfire.
The dead soldier was identified as St.-Sgt. Avihu Keinan, 22, from Shilo. He was buried at the Shilo Cemetery Thursday evening.
At about the same time, Border Police commandos trapped two top Islamic Jihad commanders in their hideout in Hebron. The two refused to surrender and opened fire at the commandos, who returned fire, killing them both and wounding a third man who was helping them.
The Givati Brigade Reconnaissance Unit slipped into the Boureij refugee camp at about 4 a. m. It was searching for Faris Shahin, a key Islamic Jihad terrorist.
The troops surrounded a number of houses and called on those inside to surrender. A dog was sent into one of the houses and later another, which turned out to be empty, military sources said.
The dog was then sent into a third house through a window. At that point, gunmen opened fire. The dog did not return, and soldiers went into the house. As they entered, gunmen opened fired at very close range, wounding the soldiers in the first burst. A heavy gun battle erupted involving other gunmen in neighboring houses.
The soldiers were taken by helicopter for treatment. At least one was in critical condition, a second was seriously wounded, and the rest suffered light to moderate wounds, military sources said.
The unit commander and another officer were among the wounded, military sources said. Also wounded was a soldier from the "Oketz" unit, which uses dogs trained to sniff out explosives and flush out fugitives.
The dead terrorists were identified as Islamic Jihad member Nur Abu Armana and Muhammad Basel Akel of Hamas.
The army said weapons were discovered on the premises before the troops pulled out, including a Kassam rocket and mortars.
Palestinian reports said that Faris Shahin had slipped away unharmed.
Meanwhile, in Hebron, a Border Police commando unit killed two suspected Islamic Jihad leaders in a firefight.
They surrounded their hideout, a cave, from which gunmen opened fire. They returned fire and at one point a wounded man stumbled out, military sources said.
Inside the cave, the army said the bodies of Diab Rahim Shweike, the commander of the Islamic Jihad military wing in Hebron, and Abdel Rahim Aziz Kik, commander in the Hebron-area villages, were found. The wounded man was taken in for treatment and questioning. Inside, troops found two Uzis, a pistol, and hand grenades.
According to military sources, Shweike, 26, had been on the run since 2001. He had been involved in orchestrating numerous attacks, including the suicide attack on a No. 25 bus in Jerusalem’s French Hill neighborhood in April 2001. The Palestinian Authority had arrested him in 2002, but he was released.
Both Shweike and Kik, 30, had a hand in numerous attacks, training terrorists and recruiting suicide attackers. Among their handiwork was the attack on Moshav Aviezer in the Elah Valley in March 2002 in which two Border Police volunteers were wounded. Their cells were also behind the March attack on a TIPH vehicle in Hebron which killed two of the foreign observers. They also are connected with the December 2002 attack on the Otniel yeshiva in which St.-Sgt. Noam Apter, 22, of Shilo, Pvt. Yehuda Bamberger, 20, of Karnei Shomron, and yeshiva students Gabriel Hoter, 17, of Alonei Habashan, and Tzvika Ziman, 18, of Re’ut were killed.
Their most deadly attacks were the strikes on soldiers and guards on Worshipers Way in Hebron last November, in which 12 people were killed. Most of those involved in this attack have been eliminated, military sources said.
In Memoriam
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