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October 22, 2004
Soldier slain in Gaza
MARGOT DUDKEVITCH
An IDF soldier, Warrant Officer Moshe Elmaliah, 34, of Dimona was killed when a powerful bomb exploded near the Hardon outpost on the Philadelphi Route near Rafah, as troops inspected a tunnel on Thursday afternoon. Hamas claimed responsibility for the attack.
Hours later, Israel responded with a vengeance. An Israel Air Force helicopter fired missiles at a vehicle in Gaza city, killing Hamas master bomb maker Adnan al-Ghoul, 46, known as the "mechanic" who developed the Kassam rocket, as well as his right-hand man, Imad al-Bas. The attack took place north of Gaza City as dozens of people were leaving a nearby mosque following evening prayers.
Following the air strike, hundreds of people, including firefighters and security forces, gathered around the ruins of the white Mitsubishi as ambulances rushed to the scene. The crowd chanted anti-Israel slogans and screamed for revenge.
Two other Palestinians were seriously wounded in the attack.
Ghoul has been sought after by Israel for over 12 years, and escaped several attempts by Israel to target him in the past. Born in Gaza, he was identified as an extremist in the 1980s, and underwent military training in Syria and Lebanon before slipping back into Gaza in 1994 where he began preparing bombs on behalf of Hamas and Islamic Jihad to be used in suicide attacks, working with No. 1 Hamas fugitive Muhammad Deif, and Yihye Ayyash, who was killed by Israel in 1996.
In recent years he focused on manufacturing Kassam rockets, mortar shells, and antitank rockets, and constantly sought to improve their capability. Security officials said Ghoul was responsible for the murders of scores of Israelis. In May 2000, he was arrested by the Palestinian security forces a number of times, incarcerated and released, and then recruited to the Palestinian Preventive Intelligence in Gaza. In recent years, he passed on to Hamas activists his expertise in bomb-making and weapons.
Hamas spokesman Musher al-Masri confirmed that Ghoul, the No. 2 figure in the group’s military wing, was killed.
"It’s a new crime committed by the Zionist occupation government against one of the leaders of the Palestinian resistance," Masri said.
Ghoul’s killing leaves the Hamas military leadership exclusively in the hands of Deif, its longtime chief. Both men topped Israel’s wanted list and operated from hiding for years. Both escaped a September 2003 air strike aimed at a gathering of the Hamas leadership in Gaza City.
Elmaliah had been supervising engineering crews working to improve the infrastructure of the narrow road in preparation for the winter months when he spotted a tunnel opening and alerted the tunnel crews to the site. Elmaliah and the soldiers got out of their vehicles to inspect the tunnel when the explosion occurred, critically wounding Elmaliah, who died shortly afterwards.
Hours after the incident, soldiers and Border Police sappers were seeking to determine whether Palestinians had smuggled the bomb through the tunnel and buried it, setting it off by remote control when they spotted troops approaching the site, or whether the tunnel was rigged with explosives which were activated when soldiers began inspecting it.
Hours later, Palestinians fired a Kassam rocket at Sderot; it landed in an open area. It was the first rocket fired at the town since the IDF pulled out of the northern Gaza Strip last week, ending the presence of ground forces in the area in the framework of Operation Days of Repentance. Earlier in the day, a bomb was detonated near soldiers deployed close to Rafah. No one was wounded in the attack.
Moshe Elmaliah is survived by his wife, two daughters, aged five and six, and a son, aged eight. His cousin Moshe Mor told reporters that Elmaliah had been wounded several times in the past while on duty in Gaza. "He worked constantly under fire, he woke up in the morning and set out for work knowing he would be shot at. Nevertheless he knew he had a job to do and never refused any mission set before him. He was larger then life itself, a big man who loved life," he said.
Details of his funeral were not announced at press time.
Thursday’s attack was the third carried out by Palestinian terrorists this week. On Monday, soldiers shot and killed two Palestinians attempting to place a bomb near the Philadelphi Route before dawn. On Wednesday, soldiers again shot and killed one Palestinian and wounded another as they attempted to place two bombs near the route.
In May, five soldiers were killed and three wounded when an antitank rocket was fired at an armored personnel carrier that containing explosives used by soldiers to blow up tunnels found in the area. Last December, soldiers were unscathed after a powerful bomb containing hundreds of kilograms of explosives blew up on the wall of the Hardon outpost.
Early Thursday morning, IDF soldiers shot and killed two terrorists spotted approaching the security fence near Kibbutz Nahal Oz. Palestinians said the two belonged to the Fatah Al-Aksa Brigade and the Islamic Jihad Al-Quds Brigade.
During the day, Palestinians fired an antitank rocket at a crowded schoolbus entering Morag in the southern Gaza Strip. No one was wounded, but the bus sustained damage. A mortar shell was fired at an Israeli community in the northern Gaza Strip.
Palestinian snipers fired at Rafiah Yam; no one was wounded but several cars were damaged.
North of Jerusalem, at the Kalandiya checkpoint, military police thwarted an attempt by a Palestinian to stab a soldier and throw acid on him. Suspicions were raised when they spotted the 40-year-old man dressed in a coat approaching the checkpoint. Military police searched the man and discovered a knife and a container of acid.
On Thursday evening, a bomb was detonated near an Israeli vehicle near Baka a-Sharkiya. No one was wounded but the car was damaged. In the early morning, security forces in Kalkilya demolished the houses of two terrorists responsible for the shooting attack at an Israeli vehicle on Road No. 6 near Kibbutz Eyal in June last year, killing Noam Leibovitch, a seven-year-old girl, and wounding three of her family members.
AP contributed to this report.
In Memoriam
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