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Jul. 4, 2004
Israeli killed in Fatah shooting laid to rest
David Rudge
Mevo Dotan resident Victor Kreiderman was killed when at least one Palestinian terrorist opened fire at his car as he was travelling with his wife not far from the couple’s West Bank home early Sunday morning.
It was one of several incidents in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip that included the ongoing firing of Kassam rockets at Jewish communities inside and beyond the Green Line. There were no other casualties.
Kreiderman, 49, was buried at the cemetery in his small community on Sunday evening. He is survived by his wife Emma, who was treated for shock following the attack, and their two children.
Emma told reporters that she hadn’t realized what had happened when her husband suddenly lost control of the car. She thought at first that stones had been thrown at them and she asked Victor why he was stopping. "Then he slumped over and his head rested in my lap and I understood," she said.
The couple immigrated from Vilna, Lithuanua in 1990 and a year later moved to Mevo Dotan where they stayed despite the wave of terrorist attacks that claimed the lives of three other members of the community several years ago.
Most of those leaving or entering the settlement do so either in private cars with an IDF escort or in bulletproof vehicles. Emma said her husband believed that as Israeli citizens they should feel free to travel anywhere.
She said that despite the loss, she had no intention of leaving Mevo Dotan.
Yael Ben-Ya’acov, head of the community’s local committee, described Kreiderman as a "great patriot."
She said terrorists repeatedly fire at IDF vehicles and those being escorted, plant explosive devices, and throw petrol bombs and rocks. "The escorts and protected vehicles are important in terms of giving a feeling of security and also helping, to a certain extent, to deter the terrorists who are out in the field trying to kill us," said Ben-Ya’acov.
"The solution, however, is not to travel in escorted convoys or vehicles protected against firing, but to eradicate terror and allow Jews who want to enter and leave their homes to be able to travel on the roads of Eretz Israel in peace and safety," she said.
The couple was travelling to Shaked along the road that bypasses the Palestinian village Yabad when shots were fired at their car; one bullet hit Kreiderman in the head. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
IDF troops searched the area around Yabad and found several spent bullet casings from a short-barrel M-16 assault rifle in an olive grove overlooking the bypass road. IDF bulldozers later levelled the land in the area, uprooting the olive trees.
It is believed that the gunman fled the scene immediately after the shooting, probably taking refuge in Yabad.
The Aksa Martyrs Brigade in the Jenin area claimed responsibility for the attack. The same group said it was behind the attempted infiltration of Har Bracha on Saturday by a heavily armed Palestinian. The gunman opened fire at the soldiers and they shot back, killing the him.
Military sources said the thwarted infiltration, as well as the roadside ambush and other recent incidents indicate that Palestinian terrorist organizations are putting more emphasis on efforts to hit military and Jewish targets in the territories because of the obstacle posed by the security fence.
Benzi Lieberman, head of the Council of Jewish Communities in Judea, Samaria, and the Gaza Strip, said that there is a correlation between the upsurge in Palestinian violence in the territories, including Kassam rocket barrages, and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Gaza disengagement plan.
"The policies of the prime minister, the policies of fleeing, and his frustrated leadership lead, in my opinion, to the encouragement of terror and loss of life," Lieberman told reporters on Sunday. In a separate incident, a Palestinian was shot and killed by undercover Border Police. According to reports, he was trying to bring more than a dozen illegal Palestinian workers from the Hebron area into Israel when his van was spotted by the border policemen.
They reportedly ordered the van to stop but it drove on. The policemen clung to the outside of the vehicle, forcing it to stop, but the driver jumped out and started running away. He was then hit and killed by IDF fire.
The Justice Ministry’s Police Investigation Unit is making inquiries into the incident. In the West Bank, Palestinian terrorists fired at an armored civilian bus near Ganim, causing minor damage but no casualties. There was also firing at IDF troops and positions near Tarkumiya, northwest of Hebron.
An explosive device was detonated near IDF troops on operational duties north of Bethlehem. There were no casualties or damage in any of those incidents.
News agencies reported that six Palestinians, including a nine-year-old boy and a 16-year-old, were killed by IDF troops in the Beit Hanun area in the past few days.
Palestinians fired four Kassam rockets at Sderot and a Jewish community in the southern sector of the Gaza Strip. Two fell inside Palestinian territory not far from the Erez crossing. One fell not far from the community in the southern part of Gaza but did not explode and the fourth exploded in open land near a farming community in the western Negev.
There were no casualties or damage as a result of the rocket firing that continued on Sunday despite widespread IDF deployment and operations in the Beit Hanun and Jabalya areas following the killing of Sderot resident Afik Zahavi Ohayon and Mordechai Yosefov by Kassams last week.
In other incidents in the Gaza area on Sunday, Palestinian gunmen fired at soldiers and positions near Netzarim, Ganei Tal, Katif, and along the Philadelphi Route. Soldiers returned fire. There were no casualties or damage.
In Memoriam
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