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Jul. 6, 2004
IDF commando killed in clashes with PFLP in Nablus
Arieh O’Sullivan
Captain Moran Vardi, 25 from Binyamina was killed early Tuesday morning in a clash with Palestinian terrorists holed up in a Nablus refugee camp. Three other commando soldiers were injured as they attempted to arrest them.
The army said that the two Palestinians, both top members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, were killed in the clash.
US citizens Khaled Sallah, a professor at Nablus’ A-Najah University, and his 16-year-old son, Mohammed, were killed while in their house in the Ein Beit Ilma refugee camp, Palestinian hospital officials said.
Judea and Samaria divisional commander Brig.-Gen. Gadi Eizencort expressed regret over the loss of civilian life and said the IDF tries to avoid using helicopters in urban areas. This time it was necessary to enable the evacuation of injured soldiers.
The incident began in the early hours after midnight when an IDF lookout spotted the wanted men entering a house inside the camp. A squad of Naval commandos, known for their anti-terrorist expertise, was dispatched to try and arrest the pair.
But as they closed in on the house the Palestinians detected them and opened fire with automatic weapons. Vardi was killed, a warrant officer was serious wounded, another warrant officer was moderately wounded and an officer was lightly wounded.
The identities and ranks of the injured have not been released pending notification of their families.
The force immediately returned fire, killing one of the Palestinian fugitives. But the other succeeded in fleeing. Lookouts traced him entering another house in the camp.
The IDF force engaged in a fierce firefight with the gunman. An attack helicopter also fired into the house and at the man who was apparently hiding on the roof. He was killed as well as two people living in that house, military sources said.
Army radio identified the two Palestinians as members of the PFLP. One was Amjat Miltat who was reportedly behind an attempted attack at the Beqa’ot Junction. He reportedly was in the midst of planning another attack.
The other terrorist killed was Yamid Farej, the commander of the PFLP in Nablus, Army radio said.
Eizencort said the two were responsible for many attacks inside Israel, including infiltrations into Itamar and Har Beracha, in the West Bank, an attack on the IDF ’Discotheque’ outpost, in which two soldiers were killed and the 2003 attack at the Geha junction that claimed 4 Israeli lives.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz told Israel Radio that the operation was necessary to target Popular Front heads and others, and was sorry the price in human life had been so high.
In Memoriam
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