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May 30, 2004
Paratrooper captain killed in Nablus
By ARIEH O’SULLIVAN
Paratrooper company commander Capt. Shahar Ben-Yishai, 25, from Menahemya, was shot dead by a Palestinian gunman during an intelligence-gathering mission at the Balata refugee camp in Nablus Saturday.
Ben-Yishai was mortally wounded around 6:30 a. m. The commander of the 101st Paratrooper Battalion, Lt.-Col. Yitzhak Bar, said Ben-Yishai’s force was on a mission to gather intelligence and engage gunmen. It included entering a house, reportedly to set up an ambush.
He said that Ben-Yishai and his troops had been in an alleyway when a Palestinian gunman sprayed a burst of gunfire at them from about 40 meters away.
"One of the bullets hit Shahar,‘ Bar said. ’It was really at the tail end of the operation, as they were getting ready to leave the refugee camp." He said that all the forces were equipped with the best ceramic vests and helmets the IDF has to offer, but the lethal bullet had found a gap. Ben-Yishai was the commander of the battalion’s crack support company.
"Shahar was very much an outstanding and charismatic commander in the battalion," Bar said. He added that IDF action has prevented 41 attempted terrorist attacks from Nablus alone this year.
Ben-Yishai’s unit had participated in a raid into Nablus Friday which nabbed a senior Tanzim member. Together with naval commandos and Shin Bet agents, the force captured suicide bombing mastermind Imad Akuba and three of his henchmen.
Akuba, 29, was wanted for making suicide bomb belts, recruiting suicide bombers, and organizing terrorist attacks in Samaria for years. Security sources said he was behind at least six planned suicide bombings. All but one (a March 2002 bombing in Ariel that wounded 11) were thwarted by Israeli action.
The army had demolished his home and he found refuge in Nablus. He was reportedly wounded during a recent IDF operation in the city.
Palestinian reports said the army brought his mother to the surrounded house to persuade him to give himself up. Akuba and his three accomplices surrendered.
Also Saturday, troops sweeping the northern perimeter of the security fence around the Gaza Strip discovered the body of a terrorist believed to have been shot dead by an army patrol during the night.
The army said the man was seen trying to plant a bomb along the fence. A morning patrol discovered the dead man along with two bombs, each weighing about 40 kilos. Sappers detonated the bombs.
There were reports soldiers mortally wounded a Palestinian trying to fire a rocket-propelled grenade at their armed vehicle Friday in Rafah’s Brazil neighborhood. The army said it was unaware of the incident.
Two soldiers were lightly injured Friday morning when a jeep laden with explosives detonated in the southern Gaza Strip, near the Philadelphi Route along the border with Egypt. According to the army, an IDF armored vehicle was escorting a bus carrying Airports Authority employees who work at the Rafah terminal in the southern Gaza Strip when the Palestinian jeep approached them.
The jeep driver apparently intended to detonate his vehicle near the bus. However, its path was blocked by mounds of earth placed between Israeli and Palestinian areas. Seeing that he could not reach the bus, the Palestinian stepped out of the jeep and began shooting. Shortly after, the jeep blew up, killing the terrorist.
No one else was wounded from the explosion and the shooting. However, they caused the bus to come to a sudden halt and the IDF vehicle drove into the bus, lightly wounding the two soldiers.
None of the people on the bus was wounded. The Rafah border crossing was shut for the day.
Also Friday, a flechette tank shell fired at suspicious figures near the security fence close to Kibbutz Nahal Oz inadvertently wounded two reservists in an outpost not far away. One of the reservists, an officer, was seriously wounded in the stomach and was rushed to Beersheba’s Soroka Hospital. The other soldier suffered light wounds, the army said. The army said it is investigating the incident.
In Memoriam
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