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Sep. 30, 2004
Civilian, two soldiers gunned down in Gaza
Margot Dudkevitch
Three Israelis — two soldiers and a woman civilian — were shot and killed Thursday by terrorists in the Gaza Strip.
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz instructed the army to step up operations and prepare for a large-scale ground offensive in the north Gaza area where troops should prepare to stay for a prolonged period. Security officials told The Jerusalem Post that at present there are no plans to call up reservists but did not rule out the possibility in the near future. Speaking at a briefing with reporters on Thursday night, OC Southern Command Maj. Gen. Dan Harel said "there is no country in the world willing to suffer rocket attacks on its cities and therefore the army will make intensive efforts on the ground and in the air to minimize such attacks." During the briefing two more Kassam rockets fell on Sderot, one damaged a factory in the town’s industrial area.
At least twenty-eight Palestinians were killed and 100 wounded in clashes with security forces in the Gaza Strip since Wednesday. The Palestinian Authority on Thursday said Israel was carrying out a "massacre" and called on the international community to intervene with Israel to stop the IDF operation in the Gaza Strip. The majority of the Palestinian casualties occurred in the Jabaliya refugee camp and others in Beit Hanun. Late Thursday, helicopters fired missiles at a group of Palestinian combatants attempting to fire an anti-tank rocket at troops in the Jebalyia refugee camp. The group was hit, but their condition remains unknown.
Nahal Brigade soldier Staff-Sgt. Gilad Fisher, 22, of Hoshaya was killed when terrorists attempted to infiltrate an IDF position in Beit Hanun before dawn on Thursday. In the incident, two Palestinians approached a post manned by IDF soldiers and threw grenades and began shooting. Soldiers of the Nahal Brigade engaged the Palestinian gunmen, and killed them both.
Security officials said the post near Beit Hanun was set up by soldiers several weeks ago and provided a vantage point of the area. Officials said at the time of the attack, there was heavy fog in the area, which made it possible for the terrorists to reach the post, but stressed that the terrorists did not infiltrate the position.
Shulamit (Shula) Batito, a schoolteacher from the Gaza Strip settlement of Nisanit, was killed along with IDF medic and Shimshon Batallion soldier Staff Sgt. Victor Ariel, 20 of Moshav Kadima in a terrorist ambush near Elei Sinai on Thursday morning. Batito was buried on Thursday night in the new cemetery at Ashkelon’s Givat Zion nieghborhood.
Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom on Thursday instructed Israel’s UN Ambassador Daniel Ayalon to petition the United Nations Security Council to condemn the firing of Kassam rockets at Israeli civilian populations. Two toddlers — Dorit Aniso, 2 and Yuval Abebeh, 4, were killed in a Kassam rocket attack on Sderot late Wednesday afternoon. The two toddlers will be buried Friday afternoon in the town’s cemetery.
Two terrorists ambushed and killed Shulamit Batito who was jogging near Elei Sinai in the Gaza Strip on Thursday morning. The sound of gunfire which killed Batito prompted soldiers from the Shimshon battalion to the scene, who apparently saw the terrorists attempting to drag the woman’s body away. In the resulting exchange of fire between the Palestinian terrorists and IDF forces, the IDF unit’s medic was killed and another soldier was moderately wounded.
One of the terrorists was killed immediately and the second managed to flee, but was killed south of the ambush scene when security forces shot at him causing an explosive belt he was wearing to blow up. According to reports, fighting throughout the day Thursday has killed some 30 Palestinians and wounded over 70.
Previous Israeli military operations in the area- including 12 major ones — have not been able to stop the rampant Kassam rocket attacks.
Basher Hamouda, 55, who fled with his family, criticized the destruction caused by the repeated Israeli raids, but also questioned the wisdom of the Palestinian rocket attacks.
The terrorists need "to look around and see what mortar shells and rockets brought to northern Gaza … nothing but destruction and killing," he told the Associated Press.
In Memoriam
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