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May 12, 2004
Five soldiers killed in 2nd attack on APC in Gaza
By MARGOT DUDKEVITCH
As the nation prepared to bury the six soldiers killed in the Zeitun neighborhood of Gaza City on Tuesday morning, five soldiers were killed and three wounded Wednesday evening when an armored personnel carrier containing explosives was hit by anti-tank rocket in the Philadelphia Corridor in the southern Gaza Strip.
The five were identified as: First Lieutenant Aviv Hakani, 23, of Ashdod, Sergeant Lior Vishinski, 20, of Ramat Gan, Sergeant Za’ur Smeilev, 20, of Ofakim, First-Sergeant Major Aiman Gadir, 24, of Bir Makhsur, Corporal Elad Cohen, 20, of Jerusalem.
The families of the soldiers have been notified.
For the second time in as many days, Israeli soldiers, including units of the Rabbinical Corps. searched the Gaza Strip for the remains of their fallen comrades. In Rafah, as well as in Zeitun, the grim searches were conducted under fire from Palestinian gunmen.
IDF Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Moshe Ya’alon told reporters Thursday that Egypt had handed over the body parts of the soldiers killed which had landed on the Egyptian side of Rafah.
An IDF convoy consisting of a D9 bulldozer and two APCs was on operational duty to detect tunnels dug by Palestinians deep underneath the ground to smuggle arms to terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip.
An explosive device exploded under the D9 lightly wounding a soldier. At about 6pm an anti-tank missile was fired at the APC as it approached the scene to assist the wounded soldier.
The force of the blast scattered parts of the armored carrier over a 400-meter radius into the town of Rafah.
The soldiers killed in the second attack on an IDF armored personnel carrier were on a routine operation to detect tunnels used to smuggle weapons to the terrorist organizations and blow them up.
The specialist force of engineering and combat forces were searching for tunnels dug deep in the ground, drilling holes in order to lay explosives and blow them up when the rocket hit the APC. The five soldiers were killed instantly. Three others were wounded.
The APC was carrying over a ton of explosives at the time it was hit. The explosives were to be used to blow up tunnels.
At first, it was thought the APC had driven over a powerful mine, but after several hours it became apparent that an anti-tank rocket had hit the vehicle.
The IDF has ordered all explosives immediately removed from armored personnel carriers.
The incident occurred close to the Termit outpost, located nearby downtown Rafah.
"It is very similar to what happened in Zeitun," senior security officials said.
In response to the recent events, Israel will embark on a rolling sequence of operations in the air and on the ground against the terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip. "We are not talking about an operation similar to Operation Defensive Shield, but a series of ongoing operations, not just pinpoint ones to destroy the terrorist infrastructure,‘ a security official said following a emergency session convened by Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, senior IDF officers, and security officials to assess the situation. The official said that Israel would extract a price for the two attacks on IDF forces, and that the army would be ’unforgiving".
The three lightly wounded soldiers, all members of the Gaza division’s engineering battalion, were taken to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack. A number of Palestinians on the outskirts of Rafah were wounded by the force of the blast. As others ran to grab parts of the APC, the army dispatched a large force of troops, tanks, APCs, and armored bulldozers to prevent the snatching of soldiers’ remains and parts of the APC.
Helicopter gunships flew overhead and fired missiles to deter gunmen and distance them from the area.
Late Wednesday night, troops had set up positions inside Rafah and isolated the perimeter where the debris and body parts were believed to have been scattered as others attempted to extricate the remains.
Meanwhile, troops were placed on high alert in the northern Gaza Strip and security officers of settlements in the area were informed of warnings of attempts to infiltrate a settlement.
The Philadelphia Route is a narrow 50-meter-wide strip that runs between Palestinian Rafah and Egyptian Rafah. Israel retained control of the strip under the Oslo Accords.
Palestinian terrorists frequently attempt to smuggle arms from Egypt into the Gaza Strip using underground tunnels dug deep under the Philadelphia Route.
Since the beginning of the year security forces have demolished 11 tunnels and since the outbreak of violence nearly four years ago close to 90 such tunnels have been destroyed by IDF forces. Not a day goes by without attacks on IDF soldiers manning the outposts along the Philadelphia Route and the patrols. Palestinians taking advantage of the sandy base often use abandoned houses on the outskirts of Rafah to dig the tunnels, which can take months to complete.
In Memoriam
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